Niseko Village

We’ve been staying at the Hilton Niseko Village since arriving on New Year’s Eve. Other than skiing, we’ve done a tiny bit of exploring in the area and have had some food from restaurants nearby as well as various snacks from the konbinis here.

Mount Yotei

Mount Yotei is quite like Mount Fuji. It can be rather elusive due to the weather at times but is beautiful when seen!

On the 5th, we saw that the clouds around Mount Yotei’s summit had cleared while we were on the Niseko Village shuttle bus on our way back to the Hilton!

After returning to the Hilton, we tried to get a clear view of the mountain. We started walking northwest at the edge of the hotel’s very large parking lot to get a clear view as this would put us further away from the trees that surround everything that isn’t developed here.

It looks very much like Mount Fuji, doesn’t it?

Mostly unrelated to Mount Yotei, but sort of related in that while we were walking next to the parking lot, we noticed this sign on the large construction site to the north of the Hilton. We had been wondering what was being built here. And, we had also noticed that the Niseko Village shuttle bus lists the Moxy hotel as one of the Niseko Village properties. There is no Moxy. Not yet, anyway! It is being built right here! It will certainly be an extremely convenient location!

We also had a fantastic unobstructed view of Mount Yotei from the Hirafu Welcome Center on the 3rd, though the summit was obscured by clouds on that day.

Niseko-yo

Niseko-yo is a small restaurant and shop area next to the Hilton. We had dinner here on New Year’s Eve but haven’t eaten here since then as the prices are pretty outrageous for Japan. We’ve travelled to Japan enough that we see no reason to eat here. However, the Sapporo Drug Store konbini is pretty reasonable.

Niseko-yo is projected on the ground at night at the entrance by the Hilton.

We’ve walked through Niseko-yo a few times in the evening, mostly to visit the Sapporo Drug Store. Generally, it’s pretty dead, though sometimes the restaurants are pretty busy.

A covered magic carpet leads up to Niseko-yo from the south. The bottom of this conveyor belt seems to be more or less at a similar elevation with the Higashiyama Niseko Village Ritz-Carlton Reserve.

This igloo-like structure is near the bottom of the magic carpet. It houses the Niseko Village Kids Club. We only know this because of the signs attached to the doors!

This rabbit sculpture is also nearby.

The Village Express combination gondola and chairlift has an extremely short run from between the igloo and the Ritz-Carlton up to Niseko-yo. It goes just high enough to be able to pass through Niseko-yo on the way to the Community Chair and Niseko Gondola by the Hilton.

It was snowing at a pretty good rate when we were exploring Niseko-yo on the 2nd.

The Community Chair, Niseko Gondola, and Hilton are just to the northeast of Niseko-yo. The Community Chair does run after dark for night skiing, though we’ve never really seen it busy at all.

We came to Niseko-yo on the evening of the 4th around 7pm to catch the Yotei Taiko performance. The area was deserted but we did see the taiko by the Christmas tree so we knew we were in the right place at the right time.

We weren’t sure how busy it would be but a small crowd started to gather for the start of the performance. This is the same group that we saw at the Hilton on New Year’s Eve.

It was quite snowy during the performance and windy as well. It was pretty cold for us spectators but probably not for the lively perfumers!

We visited Niseko-yo during the daytime as well. It always kind of felt a bit dead outside as there was always very few people around.

We ultimately found all seven animal sculptures here at Niseko Village. All but two are here by Niseko-yo.

Looking to the north, this is about as good of a view of Niseko Annupuri as you can get from the edge of Niseko-yo. The actual peak of the mountain is masked by some of the closer terrain.

We had a nice view of Mount Yotei from Niseko-yo on the 5th, after we saw it from the Hilton’s parking lot. We probably should have gotten our gear from the ski valet and headed up for a better view!

We mentioned not being particularly keen on eating at Niseko-yo, having only tried the Ippudo ramen restaurant on our first day here. On the second, we had an Ichiran instant ramen bowl from the Sapporo Drug Store. Ichiran is a famous Japanese ramen chain. We’ve had their ramen in their restaurants multiple times and have even had their “ramen kit”, which is basically like higher end instant noodles. Ichiran’s ramen bowl is a bit more like a standard instant noodle. It still tastes quite good though and is better than anything else that comes in a bowl like this!

We also had a more standard instant noodle that night. Unfortunately, we didn’t photograph the packaging so its identity has been lost to time.

Milk Kobo

One of our favorite places near Niseko Village was the Niseko Takahashi Dairy Farm, more commonly referred to as the Milk Kobo (Factory). As the name suggests, it is a dairy farm which manufactures milk related products.

Technically, it is possible to walk to Mlik Kobo from the Hilton. It isn’t really that far. But, the only route is on the snow covered main road which does not have sidewalks. The plowed road surface is just enough for two busses to pass by. So, we always took the free Niseko Village shuttle bus. The regular Niseko Bus also stops at Milk Kobo.

There are a number of buildings at Milk Kobo. The two buildings closest to the road contain the chocolate shop and a shop with all the other milk products that they make. There are also two restaurants and a smaller local goods store. There also seems to be a winter sports store, though it never seemed to be open.

So, what is good at Milk Kobo? The simple answer is, everything! The first thing we tried on our first visit on the 3rd was the ice cream. We started with ice cream with two flavors, milk and Hokkaido blueberry, and also got a milk soft serve. Both types of ice cream were excellent.

On subsequent visits, we had the milk soft serve multiple times. After all, this is Hokkaido and this is the Milk Kobo! It is a very pure milky color, though looks different in each photo we took due to the lighting.

Back to our first visit. We also got a cream puff. It was wonderfully soft!

And, we had a cheese tart. Both were excellent.

While we were eating our snacks in the dining area, we saw Mount Yotei outside! I went outside to take a closer look and to take some photographs.

We picked up this map which shows milk tourism sites nearby! If we had a car, maybe we’d visit some of them. But, our primary reason for being here is to ski so maybe on a future trip.

We decided to have lunch at Mandriano, one of Milk Kobo’s two restaurants. The building that the restaurant is within also has a factory where they were making cheese products.

Mandriano mostly serves pizza. We got the current special, teriyaki cheese pizza, featuring chicken, egg, avocado, cheese, seaweed, green onions, mayonnaise, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. The list of ingredients seems kind of weird and don’t seem like they should go together. But somehow it all works fantastically well.

This was our first positive dining experience, other than breakfast at the Hilton, here in Niseko. The pizza was delicious, came out quickly, and was reasonably priced.

We ended our first visit to Milk Kobo by going to their Cacao Crown building where they sell their chocolate products.

We got a chocolate soft serve and cacao pulp yogurt smoothie. Like everything else, both were excellent. The smoothie definitely had some extra flavor besides yogurt but it is impossible to describe.

There was a hill of snow on the edge of the parking lot. It was likely there just as a consequence of plowing the parking lot but ended up providing a great viewpoint for Mount Yotei!

On second first visit the next day, we tried this trio of products. The milk roll, on the left, was super soft and delicious.

The milk pudding was a very jello-like texture and reminded us of the jiggly cat we got from Miikflo earlier this year in Seoul.

The rich pudding was kind of like a very soft egg custard.

This display was by the entrance to the building.

The snowy scene outside of the Cacao Crown building.

Unlike the previous day, the view of Mount Yotei on the 4th during our visit was mostly obscured by clouds.

On the next day, the 5th, we returned and purchased Milk Kobo’s Milkuchen. We discovered on a previous visit to Kyoto that Baumkuchen is a popular thing in Japan. During that trip, we tried Kyo Baum’s product in Arashiyama and thought it wasn’t particularly special.

Milk Kobo’s Milkuchen is significantly better than Kyobaum’s product! It was nice and soft and flavorful.

We also got a chocolate filled cookie, which was good but small.

We also bought a bar of chocolate to try later.

There was a nice partial view of Mount Yotei from Milk Kobo during this visit.

We also had a nice view of Niseko Annupuri from the Milk Kobo northbound bus stop. Unlike the view from near the Hilton, the summit of the mountain can be seen from here. Unfortunately, there were unsightly power lines in the way! We were waiting for the bus to arrive so didn’t want to venture too far away.

The view in the opposite direction.

We did cross the street to photograph Mount Yotei though! We wrote about this day already in the Mount Yotei section above as this is the day where we saw the entire mountain from the Niseko Village shuttle bus and then from the Hilton parking lot.

On the next day, the 6th, we returned to Milk Kobo once again and ate at Mandriano.

We went for the Margherita pizza, one of the simpler options available. We also noticed that it’s possible to get addons. There were two meat options, ham and salami. We got salami, though we weren’t sure exactly what we would get as the Japanese versions of things are often quite different from what they are in America. The pizza itself was pretty good, though the salami was a bit weird and more like ham.

We also ordered the fried chicken. It was fantastic! The crispy breading was nicely flavored and the meat was dark meat, probably thigh.

We also purchased some snacks… We didn’t eat all our snacks at once! We did end up accumulating a bit more than planned in our hotel room at the Hilton!

These little cheesecake pieces are best described as being ridiculously moist and cheesy!

On the 7th, we discovered the magic of these Baumkuchen pieces. Buying these is cheaper than buying the intact cakes. We assume that these are ones that were cosmetically damaged during the manufacturing process. We aren’t buying them for お土産 omiyage so were happy to be able to get the same tasting product for less!

Its pretty normal to see weird English in Japan. This sign next to Milk Kobo is probably trying to say not to ski on the sidewalk or road.

Restaurants near Milk Kobo

We discovered that there are two highly rated restaurants near Milk Kobo, both within walking distance.

Udon at Esoragoto

We visited the first of these two restaurants on the 4th when it was snowing.

Esoragoto, a gluten free udon restaurant, is at the only traffic light that we know of near Niseko Village. The restaurant seems to be a popup location that just opened in December and will remain until April. The original Esoragoto location is from around Harajuku in Tokyo.

The udon is made from brown rice, unlike regular udon which is made from flour. We got the special niku dan dan and soy milk dan dan udon. The udon noodles had a very similar texture and feeling compared to regular udon noodles. The two broths were very different though but both were very good.

Two pieces of tempura chicken were also provided, it seems you get one piece included with each bowl. The chicken was well prepared, though it would have been better if it was dark meat.

Although the restaurant is located in a big house, the number of tables is pretty limited and food preparation was pretty slow compared to most Japanese udon restaurants. We think this is probably because of the popup nature of this restaurant. We didn’t mind as the food was reasonably priced and tasted great!

We walked over to Milk Kobo after lunch. Although the sky was overcast, the weather had improved.

Ramen at Ramen Horieya Niseko888

The day after, we went to visit the other restaurant which is right next to Milk Kobo.

When we got off the Niseko Village shuttle bus, we noticed this beautiful view of Mount Yotei.

Ramen Horieya Niseko888 is in a house on a snowy side street. Like the udon restaurant, this ramen restaurant is new as well.

We got two bowls of ramen, one tonkotsu with seven pieces of chashu and the other a miso tonkotsu. Both were excellent and very different in flavor and also different from other ramen that we’ve had before. The chashu was also fantastic, easily among the best we’ve had. Seven pieces in one bowl is a pretty unheard of amount, and there was actually another option with eleven!

The restaurant has views of Mount Yotei from the small patio outside.

The weather was much nicer than the previous day. Of course, we walked over to Milk Kobo afterwards.

We returned to Ramen Horieya Niseko888 two days later, on the 7th. We had a bit of an adventure just prior on the Niseko Village shuttle bus, which we’ll write about later in this post. But for now, this was the scene as we walked from the bus top to the restaurant.

This time, we got the shio tonkotsu ramen in addition to the tonkotsu with seven pieces of chashu. Both were excellent as expected!

The view as we walked to visit Milk Kobo, of course!

Niseko Village Shuttle Bus

We’ve already mentioned riding the Niseko Village shuttle bus. This bus runs between all the hotels owned by Niseko Village and the Hirafu Welcome Center. It also makes an intermediate stop at Milk Kobo and also has some departures that go to the Kutchan JR station as well as one per day that goes to the Niseko JR station.

The schedule is more frequent starting from the early afternoon and continues into the late evening. Departures from the Hilton Niseko Village are generally always on time as the busses park in the parking lot between runs. Arrival times at the other stops will vary depending on how busy the bus is and of course the weather.

The busses used are large coach busses. Skis and snowboards can be carried as well, though they must be placed in the storage area below.

We only had trouble once time with the bus, on the 7th. We were planning on going to Milk Kobo for lunch and so went to catch the 11:50am bus from the Hilton. When the bus arrived, there was a horde of people trying to get on. It was chaos. We didn’t have any skis to store so boarded right away. The bus was at capacity, with additional people sitting in the aisle.

The bus driver seemed a bit overwhelmed. With the bus full, and most passengers going to Hirafu, the bus started to skip stops. It only stopped at once hotel to let a single passenger off who had boarded the bus late.

When the bus arrived at Milk Kobo, the bus driver announced the stop and started to slow down. We vocally indicated we wanted to get off, which the bus driver sort of acknowledged but kept going. We protested but the driver kept on going. Unfortunately, there were people sitting in the aisle blocking access to the door. If they were not there, we would have simply walked to the door, forcing the driver to let us off.

The next opportunity to get off the bus was at the Hirafu Welcome Center. We looked at the schedule and realized there would be no point to get off the bus as the next departure heading back to Milk Kobo and the Hilton would be the same bus. The local Niseko bus schedule also wasn’t really any better. There are taxis but we’ve never had to use one here and we weren’t sure how long it would take to get one. So, we stayed on the bus but moved to the front row.

Soon, the bus started heading to the Kutchan JR Station. I did message the Hilton through the Hilton app expressing my displeasure at what was going on. This sort of thing with rogue bus drivers not doing their job correctly is pretty much unheard of in Japan.

The ride to Kutchan was uneventful. The bus was mostly empty, though there was another person who also ended up stuck on the bus. She had intended to get off at one of the other hotels so was even more unfortunate than us!

We waited for a few minutes at the Kutchan JR Station on the bus while the driver went down to the station’s waiting room to see if there were any passengers waiting for the bus there. The woman who had gotten stuck on the bus left to get a taxi back to Niseko Village rather than wait on the bus.

Soon, we were underway, backtracking to the Hirafu Welcome Center and then towards Niseko Village. This time, we were able to get off the bus at Milk Kobo.

After returning to the Hilton, we went to speak to a manager at the front desk. We explained what had happened and expressed our displeasure at the situation. The manager assured us that this should not have happened and that the bus should never skip stops. The manager offered us some drink coupons for the rest of our stay, which we had no interest in as we already had two free drinks per day as a result of being Diamond members with Hilton. We instead requested and granted a late checkout, which was originally denied as it is not a guaranteed benefit with Hilton and the hotel is extremely busy during the winter season.

Ultimately, we think this fiasco was caused by the bus driver being extremely overwhelmed. He did not know how to handle the situation of a full bus and did not make any effort to try to communicate. He absolutely knew what he should do as well, but, he simply did not do it.

Hilton Niseko Village

One of the hotel features worth mentioning is the ski valet. We found this to be an absolutely fantastic feature of this property! The ski valet is on the first floor of the hotel and can be accessed from the inside as well a door on the outside of the hotel. Basically, after you are done skiing, you leave your boots and skis with the valet in exchange for a token, really just small laminated papers with a number written on it. In the morning, you trade in the tokens for your boots and your skis. You keep the basket that your boots were stored in and place your regular shoes there and give it back to the attendant so that you don’t have to carry them around or store them somewhere else.

We already wrote about our room at the Hilton Niseko Village from our post on New Year’s Eve when we checked in. There’s not much to add other than that the room was reasonably spacious and suited all our needs. The only real improvement would be a newer and larger bathroom.

The Hilton is a modern looking structure shaped like an incomplete cylinder.

The rooms are all on the outside of the cylinder. The hallways are on the inside and have occasional small windows.

The windows at the Hilton are fantastic. We enjoyed watching the scenery and the weather from our room, particularly when it was snowing. And it certainly did snow!

We recorded quite a few short clips of the various snow conditions from our room at the Hilton.

We recorded some longer videos on our last full day at the Hilton.

From our room, we could look down and see the reindeer that seems to be there just for photo ops. And the horse that pulls sleds through the snow.

We could also see the gondola from our room.

After staying at the same hotel for so many nights, we certainly had our favorite items from the breakfast buffet. The best was probably the salmon and eel donburis. Not that they were the highest quality ingredients, but it was still pretty good to have for breakfast.

The ice cream was surprisingly good, which we didn’t discover right away. It was even better on a waffle!

Towards the end of our stay, fruit plates were delivered to our table. We think this is as an apology for the incident with the shuttle bus! The fruit on the platter was better than the fruit normally available with the buffet.

It did seem that the hotel has an additional dining area on a different level that is used on some days for breakfast. We always had breakfast at Melt and never saw the other breakfast venue, however, we did see some guests directed to the other location.

As Diamond members in the Hilton Honors program, we received drink coupons for every night of our stay. They could be used at any time and on any day. We did use them all at The Flame, the bar and lounge area in the lobby.

The bar and lounge area occupies the entire center portion of the lobby. It’s a big space, but was often extremely crowded.

The drink coupons could also be used for non-alcoholic beverages as well, although we only did this once.

We also received this small platter as a welcome gift.

There is a little coffee stand on the outside of the Hilton facing the ski slopes. We didn’t try it though.

Konbini Food

We previously mentioned having had instant ramen from the Sapporo Drug Store. There is also a konbini inside of the Hilton, which we ended up visiting frequently for snacks as well. Both carry different items with many local options from Hokkaido. The shop in the Hilton does have more souvenir and mmiyage items though, taking up most of the small shop.

We didn’t really record where we bought each individual item from. Theoretically, we could look it up on the receipts though.

Japan has lots of interesting snack flavors that aren’t available in the US. These are avocado flavored Doritos. They seemed a bit like Cool Ranch.

These potato chips are made from Japanese domestic potatoes. Presumably from here? The text on the back of the package provides quite a bit of information about Mount Yotei and the local region (translated using Google Translate):

The independent peak, which stands in Shitoya National Park, which includes Mount Hitsujioka, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu Onsen, Lake Shiyu, and Jozankei, is the tallest in southwestern Hokkaido at 1,898 meters above sea level, and is also one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan.

What's Mount Yotei?

It is a circular, cone-shaped volcano and is popularly known as Ezo Gyoushi.

There are various courses for mountain climbing, including the Kutchan Course.
(Time required: out/5:00 min. return/3:30 min.)

Shinuchi course
(Time required: To/5:00/3:30)

Night course
(Time required: Pillar/4 hours 40 minutes, Certificate/3 hours 10 minutes)

Kyogoku course
(Time required: 4:30 minutes, 3:00 minutes)

You can choose according to your starting point and the time you need to reach the summit. There is a shelter on the way to the 9th station of both the Karinan and Makkari courses, and a caretaker who also monitors alpine plants is stationed there from early June to early October.

It is believed to have been formed around the end of the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Alluvial Epoch, approximately 28,000 years ago, and the main body was formed by lava, with the current large crater being the third eruption crater. There are several other craters, and there are six parasitic volcanoes, including Kitayama at the North Crater, which was formed by a lateral eruption, Lake Hangetsu, Hoshigaike, Minami Kobu, and the South Crater Lava Flow, which were formed by water accumulating in the explosion crater.

The name comes from the Ainu word machineshiri (product).

It was originally called Makkari-nupuri, but in the Edo period it was called Shiribeshiyama, a Japanese name said to have been recorded in the Nihon Shoki. However, it was later called Makkari-betsuyama, Makkari-nupuri, and Makukari-nupuri, but due to the difficulty of reading the name and the presence of Shiribetsutake mushrooms in the area, it came to be called Kouhou Youteizan, which was later shortened to Youteizan, and the current name Hitsujiyama became common.

Tenoyama, which retains its pristine nature, has different vegetation depending on the altitude, with the low mountain broadleaf forest of Quercus crispula and Onigurumi trees near the trailhead (350m), while above 1700m there are many Pumila and alpine plants. Various other plants and animals live here, including beautiful flowers such as the rock plum, rock lily, cowberry, and yellow rhododendron, as well as animals such as the northern fox, Hokkaido squirrel, and Siberian hare, and many wild birds such as the kingfisher and black-eared grazer.

Hitsujiokayama is surrounded by a wealth of natural attractions, including a nationally renowned ski resort, art museums where you can casually enjoy art, and a variety of delicious agricultural and dairy products, all of which can be enjoyed throughout the year.

This park was built with the help of Austrian architect Lerbi, who first introduced skiing to Japan, and the most memorable feature is the statue of Lerbi in military uniform holding a pole.

Half Moon Lakeside Nature Park

Located at the western foot of Mt. Hirono, it features a crescent-shaped lake and beautiful trees that change with the seasons. It is also the starting point for the Kutchan trail and is conveniently equipped with facilities such as toilets and parking.

Kutchan Folk Museum

There are exhibits that allow you to learn about Kutchan from various angles, such as aerial photographs of Kutchan, nature and environment, and lifestyle and culture zones, as well as an experiential learning room, a workshop, and a study room.

Sei Ogawahara Memorial Museum

This art museum is home to a collection of works by Kutchan-born painter Ogawara Itai. The spacious, simple and natural interior, made with natural stone and wood, offers a relaxing atmosphere in which to view the artworks.

We don’t quite remember when exactly we had this ramen! None of the ramens we tried were as good as the Ichiran instant ramen. We did actually have the Ichiran ramen multiple times, though we only photographed it the first time we had it.

We were really surprised to find not one but two Japanese guarana sodas here at the Hilton in Niseko! Guarana soda is popular in Brazil, particularly the local Guaraná Antarctica brand. We haven’t really seen guarana drinks elsewhere in Japan and based on the packaging it seems to possibly be a Hokkaido thing.

Meiji was an emperor but is now a big Japanese snack food company.

There’s all sorts of snacks to be found!

The cup curry was interesting as we haven’t seen instant Japanese curry and rice before.

Kit Kat is another major western brand that has a huge variety of different flavors in Japan. The only downside is that Japanese Kit Kats are really tiny!

These taco Doritos were much better than the avocado cheese ones we had earlier. These tasted just like Taco Bell!