To Japan!

My colleague Brendan Madden and I have been invited to Alts and Nekoma Ski Areas in the Fukushima Prefecture to check out the potential here. Just the flight over makes you realize Japan is no small player when it comes to skiing. It is a rarity in the eastern hemisphere. We flew from China which has very little skiing, and what does exist disappoints due to the Middle Kingdom’s notoriously dry winter weather patterns. It’s cold enough, just no moisture. An hour into the flight I looked from the airplane window and saw the Korean Peninsula. The mountains there fare little better than China’s. There’s a classic article about skiing in Korea in Ski Magazine.

But then Japan. Boom. Snow. Completely white, snow-drifted peaks above the tree line, shimmering white forests below it. From the window of the airplane I counted no less than 15 ski areas between the Sea of Japan and Tokyo.

I’m writing from two perspectives these days. My life mostly revolves around China, but I’m American. America has skiing — particularly in the west, though I’ll give a shout out to the east coast too. Comparatively, China doesn’t. There’s some major peaks, the Himalayas and Tianshan Mountains come to mind. But there’s no infrastructure in these places, plus the looming risk that you will suffer AMS due to their altitude. Anyway, out in those mountains, you’re lucky to find roads. The rest of Asia offers little more, particularly when compared to the continent’s overall landmass. India has Gulmarg, which is sick, but hell to get to. Iran has a few resorts, but Americans are hardly allowed to get in. Turkey, but that’s almost Europe. There’s some slopes in Russia, I suppose. Is that Asia? There's Kyrgyzstan. Perhaps Afghanistan could have potential but…well, you know the problem there. Iraq anybody?

So that leaves the excellent option of Japan. We have skied here before, last time on Hokkaido, the smaller island to the north. This time around we’re in the heart of Honshu, the big island. And though we haven’t skied yet, so far it seems we are headed in the proper direction. We arrived at the Narita International Airport, threw our heaps of luggage onto carts, transferred by bus from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, and met our pre-arranged van at number the #2 bus stop (thank you Samurai Riders Hostel). Slick. Five hours of relaxing driving later, or about 3 heated mini-cans of coffee from the rest stop vending machines, here we are: Alts and Nekoma.