After ten nights at the Hilton Niseko Village, we had our last breakfast at the property and headed out to ski one last time. After draining our last 12 point passes on the Banzai Chair, we returned our skis to Village Sports and returned to our room to clean up, pack, and check out. We then took a bus to Sapporo where we checked into the ANA Crowne Plaza, walked around the city a bit, and had dinner at Sapporo Kanihonke.
Morning
After waking up at the Hilton Niseko Village, we continued with our usual routine of having breakfast at the 6:30am opening time.
Breakfast was mostly the same, other than the goodbye cookies that we received!
After breakfast, we returned to our room to get ready for the day. As usual, the weather was variable.
There was a pretty long line for the gondola when we headed down to the ski valet at around 8:40am.
Niseko Village Skiing
The line was no worries for us though as we hopped onto the adjacent Community Chair.
Although there was a bit of cloud and snow in the morning, the weather was pretty nice as we enjoyed our final ride on the rather slow Community Chair.
After getting off the lift, we looked downhill to see the Hilton from afar and just a hint of Mount Yotei beyond.
We turned to head to the Banzai Chair though to get some easy practice in.
It was a quick descent to the Banzai Chair. We immediately boarded and headed up.
It looks like there will be no Yotei views this morning!
We experienced a variety of conditions as we quickly used up our remaining 12 point passes. Unfortunately, it took us awhile to kind of get reacquainted with skiing during this trip after being away from it for more than 3 years due to my ACL injury! We really should have taken a pre-ski trip ski trip! But, at least we enjoyed our time here!
We skied down into Niseko-yo to return our skis to Village Sports. We then returned to the Hilton ski valet to pick up our shoes.
Check Out
We returned to our room one last time to shower and finish packing. The weather was overcast and a tad dark when we had returned to the room but it improved over the next two hours or so.
While we had originally shipped our large luggage from Narita to Niseko via Yamato Transport’s TA-Q-BIN service, we decided to keep our luggage with us as there was a small chance of delay if there was any significant inclement weather, which was a bit unpredictable in advance. This means that we would have more to schlep around Japan during the remainder of our trip. We brought our luggage downstairs to the lobby but left it with the staff while we waited for our bus.
While waiting, we saw that the weather was pretty good. We went outside to the parking lot to take a look and had a pretty good view of Mount Yotei! While it did still have a bit of a cloud cap, it was much smaller than the cloud sombrero we saw in the morning!
One final look at our home for the last 10 nights before heading back to the lobby to wait for the bus.
Niseko
Niseko was an interesting place to visit and very unlike anywhere we’ve been in Japan, and really anywhere else in the world. The snow was, of course, amazing. We didn’t really get to take full advantage of it. So, of course, we want to return to Japan for more Japow! As for Niseko, the Hilton Niseko Village was ridiculously convenient. But, Grand Hirafu definitely has more slope options compared to Niseko Village as well as significantly more dining options. And there are, of course, many different places to ski in Japan. So its unclear where we’ll end up next as far as skiing in Japan goes.
If we do return here to Niseko Village, likely the question will be, the Hilton or the new Moxy that is being built? We’ve never stayed at a Moxy before and the brand, which is part of Marriott, isn’t particularly appealing. We’ll see exactly what the rooms are like when it opens.
The oddest thing about Niseko is that most visitors seem to be foreign tourists like ourselves. And, other than the bus drivers and some office staff, most of the workers were encountered were foreign as well. But, generally, the service we received everywhere was top notch, other than the issue we had with the bus driver!
Chuo Bus
For our trip to 札幌 Sapporo, we again had tickets with Chuo Bus. The route would be slightly different as we are headed to Sapporo rather than back to 千歳 Chitose. One slightly confusing thing about the Chuo Bus is that they operate a number of busses with different liveries. The bus we were taking back was completely different in appearance than the one we arrived on. We did actually see this particular bus, or another painted like it, multiple times here in Niseko though.
The bus makes various stops in the Niseko area based upon where there are customers that have reserved seats on the bus. Thus, we passed through the Hirafu Welcome Center one final time.
While we haven’t been to the famous Fujikawaguchiko Lawson, we have now passed by the seemingly similar but much less famous Hirafu Lawson!
Look at the ridiculous icicles on this building in Kutchan!
Crews were busy clearing snow in this good weather.
We were lucky to get this view of Mount Yotei from the east as we were crossing over a river.
The bus makes a short bathroom stop about half way through the trip. The Sapporo and Chitose routes stop at different places, with this bus stopping at Nakayama Pass.
We were treated to this beautiful sunset view of Mount Yotei a few minutes before the bus was ready to depart.
The ride into Sapporo was pretty uneventful. It turns out that it is pretty slow going once the bus returned to the populated area around the city.
ANA Crowne Plaza Sapporo
We got off the bus at the final stop at the Sapporo JR Station. We then walked about four blocks to reach the ANA Crowne Plaza. The walk was slow going due to snow on the sidewalk and our now super heavy rolling bag.
We made it to the hotel and checked in at around 6pm.
We received an information sheet in both English and Japanese about the hotel, which will be our home for the next two nights. We originally were planning on staying in Sapporo for much longer but the point redemption rate for the Hilton Niseko Village was so good that we stayed for ten days instead of the five that we had originally intended on months ago.
While we enjoyed our stay at the Hilton, our room here at the Crowne Plaza was significantly larger and more modern.
The bathroom was also much better!
A few small welcome snacks were on the desk.
Along with a welcome note.
We had what is best described as an urban view from our room. No more mountain, no more piles of beautiful snow!
Dinner
We headed back out to take a look around and also to have dinner. While on the bus, we were looking at food options in Sapporo. We decided we wanted to try to eat at Sapporo Kanihonke, a crab chain which features crab from Sapporo but was apparently founded in Nagoya. We actually saw the restaurant, in this building, on our way to the hotel earlier. We went inside and joined the queue. The way it works is that you get a numerical token indicating your place in line. They gave us a rough estimate of how long the wait would be so we were able to go walk around the city a bit.
We passed by here earlier while walking to our hotel but didn’t have time to enjoy the blue winter illumination on the trees.
We turned to the south and came across more blue illuminated trees. Very pretty! While Sapporo isn’t exactly Tokyo, it is still a huge city compared to Niseko where we have been since New Year’s Eve.
We ended up browsing a two floor Montbell store before exiting into Sapporo’s underground passageways. There, we found the Marumi Coffee Stand, which we had actually marked on Google Maps.
We decided to have a Hokkaido milk and coffee soft serve, aka coffee latte! It was excellent!
We soon returned to Sapporo Kanihonke to wait for our table. We should have photographed the vast lobby area that occupies the ground floor of the restaurant!
Soon, our table was ready. This restaurant was like some of the other higher end restaurants that we’ve been to where you take off your shoes prior to entering the dining area, in this case, prior to getting into the elevator. We were directed upstairs where a private room was waiting. It was mostly private anyways as the rooms aren’t really fully enclosed.
The first dish to arrive was the boiled hairy crab, local to Hokkaido and available live all year. Most of the crab dishes here are served cold as it is supposed to make the crab taste better. It was also advantageous in that we ended up with many dishes on our table so at least we didn’t have to worry about them getting cold!
We also ordered a portion of boiled king crab.
And, king crab sushi.
And, a crab gratin which was the only hot dish that we ordered. It came in an interesting crab shaped container!
Overall, it was an excellent dinner! The king crab was still the best tasting due to its sweetness. The local hairy crab wasn’t as sweet, and also isn’t as good as our local Maryland blue crab.
We didn’t notice this pool of crabs in the lobby until we were paying!
The restaurant even has a stamp station! And sheets to stamp on in case you forgot your stamp book!
We did visit the Seicomart, a konbini chain from Hokkaido, in our hotel on the ground floor and got a pair of onigiri. It wasn’t as good as 7-Eleven.