My Journey to Niseko ski resort. TIP: Make the most of your journey!

One of the great wonders of seasonaire life is travelling. I wonder who I’ll meet on my next journey! I spend a lot of time travelling on airplanes, coaches, taxis etc. etc. and it’s the big journeys across the world that are the most exciting!

First stop on my way from Cambridge to Niseko, Japan was Istanbul airport for a layover. So I get on the plane, find my seat and get settled in soon to realise that I’m pretty sure I’m sat next to one of the guys I used to know from my Sheffield Hallam American football days.

He randomly happened to be watching the NFL on his phone which prompted me to flicking back through old university photos of me and the girls team. He must have noticed because he made a comment and we got to catching up and reminiscing the old days! Neither of us could remember each others name and by the time we got off the flight that still hadn’t changed. Isn’t it strange how you can be on your way to the other side of the world and bump into people you once knew?!

So I get to Istanbul, and before long I’m on my next flight to Tokyo. A seriously long flight as you can imagine, it was stuffy, and I did not have enough water. I was originally sat by myself on a row of three, and then some random guy had the audacity to move from his middle seat next to two other people and place himself in the isle seat next to me! The cheek! Why do people feel the need to change seats on an airplane? Unless its to a completely free aisle or you’re next to a baby I just don’t see the point, it’s just plain rude.

I get to Tokyo airport late evening and get asked to wait for bloody ages so that some special guy could open up a specific lane for those of us staying in Japan for a year or more, clock ticking at this point I’m wondering if Ill even get to my hostel before morning!

Finally I get to my Pod hostel and get to bed after a nice hot shower and then discover the hostel has these cool mobiles that have maps and an inbuilt guide to TOKYO which you can access while you’re out and about via 4G! How cool is that! It was an absolute saviour while I was there. I mean, a few people had told me that Japan was very progressive with their technology but this was the first of many cool things that I would discover about Japan. Don’t even get me started on their toilets; heated seats, privacy music, bum wash for your extra hygiene needs and some even self-flush! And then you go to one in a service station and its a whole other story.

I’d booked myself one more night stay at this hostel so that I could have a busy day exploring what Tokyo had to offer. I experienced sushi like no other, soba ramen from the gods, explored shrines, breath-taking traditional gardens.

I even managed to squeeze a visit to the digital I-lab museum which is TOTALLY worth a visit if you ever get the chance to go to Tokyo. I’m not a big fan of museums but The I-LAB was insane. It was a museum of light and sound where every room was filled with a different spectacle that changed when you moved or touched the walls.

After an extremely full day of exploring the city, I fall asleep but have to wake up only a few hours later to make my way to the airport for my flight to Sapporo. Absolutely starving, I treated myself to some udon ramen for breakfast and checked in my bag at which point I noticed this blonde haired girl in a baggy jumper and her ski bag. No doubt in mind that she was a fellow seasonaire. Thinking there is a small possibility that she’s heading to the same mountain as me, maybe even working for the same company I headed over to say hi and introduce myself. It turned out I was right! That’s how I met my now roommate and friend Jess from Exeter. Who would have thought she’d be allocated to my room in my flat of all places within the company! Jess was flying to Sapporo to meet some friends and explore the city before getting to resort but I had other plans; I was meeting Anika and Hannah from my New Zealand season in Sapporo to travel to Kutchan together.

We get on the train and it started to bucket it down with thick giant snowflakes; we were on our way into a winter wonderland. While we were on the bus we were joined by a bunch of rowdy American guys who honestly managed to make their way through God knows how many cans of beer. We found it seriously disrespectful to every Japanese person on the train because the Japanese have strict customs in public to keep yourself to yourself by not eating, drinking or talking to anyone even on the phone, let alone singing songs and cracking jokes and lets be honest it was downright rude to everyone else too.

This wouldn’t be the first sign of cultural misappropriationthat I witnessed during my stay and was one of the first things I learned about the strict way in which the people lived here. It had me thinking:” how important are these customs going to be in the ski resort surrounded by foreign seasonaires and holiday-makers?” and “how much of an effort should a seasonaire put in to living like a local?”

Finally reaching my new home Anika and I were greeted by the sound of Ru Paul’s drag race and the smell of instant ramen as two new flatmates introduced themselves and the tiny little eight person flat to us, now thinking “this is going to be a great season”.

The Ski Nomad