Finally after days of waiting we experience some legendary Niseko Powder. The weather rolled in on sunday and it dumped all night putting down a couple of feet of fresh. So monday we headed to a smaller resort whilst Sammy San spent 5 hours in hospital getting his wrist put in a cast. The snow was probably the lightest, fluffiest powder i've ever ridden in my life and although it wasn't really deep, it was enough to put smiles on everyones faces. Even the slightest carves sent up huge plumes of smoky powder. Our host Owain knows the place like the back of his hand and has guided some pro team riders over the seasons so knows exactly where to be when it dumps. I can't help thinking if we didn't have his experience and knowledge we wouldn't have seen half as much. The runs at Moiwai were short and sweet which meant we were able to put in lap after lap on a virtually deserted mountain. In between runs on the chair the speakers on the lift blared out some great music, throwing up some Neil Young and Jimi Hendrix making it feel like the day was made for us. We finished our last run of the day with Louis Armstrongs Wonderful world playing out a perfect day, and another celebratory beer in a hot spring.

Been a quiet few days on the riding front. Rode Hirafu for an afternoon in slushy spring like conditions and had a blast just hacking around the place playing on various bumps and jumps along the way. Seems to be quite a good freestyle set up here if thats what you're into. Nothing huge but some decent sized kickers and plenty of boxes to play on. May have a crack if i warm up a little more. Also did a late afternoon hike behind Owains place in the heaviest warmest snow ever. Took us 40 minutes to ride down in the dark in wet heavy snow. Sounds rubbish but it was loads of fun trying to stay on your feet. We are in Japan so anything is fun. Just could do with that legendary snow we've heard so much about. Apparently it's in the post.

With so much down time we've kept ourselves amused visiting supermarkets and cracking up over the alien foodstuffs and funny names. This picture here shows a particularly noteworthy highlight found on a little girls dress. God knows what this is supposed to mean but it had us in stitches.

First day in Harafu

Went up the local hill yesterday in Harafu and although we didn't get any decent freshies we did a little hike and scored a coupe of heavy pow turns. It was good just to brush the cobwebs off. The first day back is always a struggle trying to remember how and if you can still snowboard. We did a short 15 minute hike to warm us up and picked our way through some trees, scoring a few heavy pow turns along the way. Luckily our hosts Owain and Mons know the area well so took us to the best places to ride for the conditions. The scope here for riding is amazing, and if and when it snows it's going to be epic. the forecast is saying it'll snow on tuesday night so who knows what it'll bring. For now we're content to explore the area and do some hiking.

After riding last night we visited our first Onsen to ease the pains whilst Sammy San went night riding. Onsens are hot springs for public bathing where you can ease your aches and pains so perfect after a hard days riding, especially if you have a couple of beers to take in with you. Unfortunately whilst we were lording it up in the hot spring, Sam dislocated his wrist so we spent an evening eating japenese junk food and waiting for the doc to pull his wrist back into place. Ouch!

Arrive in Niseko finally after 2 days in Tokyo. We initially planned to head straight onto Sapporo but Finnair wanted to charge us £1000 each for excess baggage! Absolutely Criminal. We managed to get away with it though because the plane was late into helsinki and our bags didn't make it onto the connecting flight, hence our stay in Toyko. Not a bad place to be stranded without your bags though.

First Impressions of Japan is how friendly the folk out here are. I mean really friendly and helpful. Such a contrast from what we're used to in the UK. We stepped off the plane to be greeted by a smiley woman with a sign with our names on it, where we were taken through the lost baggage procedure and even given overnight kit bags with T-shirt, socks and the essentials to keep you going. in the UK you'd be met with a miserable hurrumph and not so much as a second glance. Not in Japan.

So after making our way through the centre of Tokyo we find a hotel within 5 minutes, dump our bags and head into craziness that is Tokyo. We've chosen to stay in the Shibuyu district which is apparently quite a hip and trendy area, and judging by the get up people are sporting it's pretty spot on. First stop on the tour is the huge cross road you see in the films where people can cross from all directions. It's a little tricky to negotiate at first as you thread your way through the masses, but pretty soon you become nimble on your feet and you're waling as the locals do. After sniffing out some grade A sushi and sinking our first well earned beer, we wonder around looking for a bar to hole up in. My first bit of advice to anyone going to Tokyo is remember to look up or you'll miss out on a lot. So much goes on above ground level. Seemingly bland looking office building house restaurants, secret bars and all manner of weirdness. Just find yourself a random staircase, go on up and explore and you never know what you'll find.

Yoshi Yoshi - For good reason

And so we're on the verge of our voyage East to explore the North island of Japan, via Finland, over the north of Russia and onto Tokyo, then a short hop up to Sapporo. Seems like so long ago we started to plan this trip. Japan is probably on every snowboarders hit list, especially since watching Nico Muller-Rice and co bouncing through the trees in the absinthe snowboard videos over the past few seasons. it's only really tonight i've started to get excited. So much so i went through a full inventory of my kit, just like Arnie in Commando when he's gearing up to dish out some payback. snowboards-check, balaclava-check, perudo-check, samurai sword-check.

Heard so much about the snow in Japan too so i've armed myself with the right tools for the job. got a rocker board just in case the snow goes off, and a shorter board for mucking about. I'm really not expecting it to snow all day every day like it appears to in the films, so any freshies are a bonus. It's simply going to be a great experience exploring what seems like the most foreign country, but one of the most appealing. Snowboarding is just a small part of the trip. Well, actually that's a lie, we're going to frickin shred hard until our legs give up on us.