It was one of my bucket list items to visit Niseko Ski resort in Hokkaido. I have never been to Hokkaido and felt a bit shame since I visited bunch of states in the US and several European countries but not Hokkaido as a Japanese. Finally, this year I decided to visit Hokkaido for the first time in my life and did have unusual experiences. Every time I go on a vacation, I experience something unusual and this was no exception.
On Thursday 04/24/25, I used Uber to get to the Denver International Airport. The previous day, I booked the uber ride, but the ride did not come at 4 am. I checked my booking and learned that I thought I booked at 4 am but booked at 4 pm! Quickly, I sent another request to Uber for the ride. My very first mistake! The lesson was we must always check the reservation! Luckily, I was able to reach the airport in time for my boarding. I had enough time to enjoy my breakfast at the United club. I have a United Airline credit card, and it gives me two passes to the United club a year!
My first plane ride was from Denver to San Francisco. This airplane did not come with the monitor, so I used my tablet for movie viewing. Since the plane was delayed departing and arrived at San Franciso, I had to run to get my next flight to Osaka, Japan. The airplane to Osaka was much bigger than the previous one and came with the monitor, so I did not need to my tablet for movies. It took about 11 hours and 40 minutes to arrive at Kansai International Airport in Osaka at around 2:40 pm on Friday 04/25/25.
I used an All Nippon Airway’s domestic flight to Hokkaido on the same day. This was my second time using ANA’s domestic flight. My first time was about 42 years ago! It was a bit weird for me to reach Kansai International Airport to see my childhood town not getting off and continued to Hokkaido.
At Chitose International Airport in Hokkaido, I had already booked an Alamo rental car through Expedia, however, I did not see an Alamo rental car window. I was panicking a bit. By asking people around, I learned that Alamo operates under Nippon Rental Car. Since no one was at the Nippon rental car booth, I went outside and luckily, I saw the shuttle bus for that business. After reaching the Nippon rental car, I showed my Japanese driver’s license and finished the paperwork. It was good that I renewed my expired Japanese license last year. At that time, I did not expect to drive in Japan, but the opportunity just came like this. My recurring lesson here is “Never think something is unimportant. You never know when you need it.”
I have not driven in Japan for about 20 years, so I was a bit nervous to drive on the opposite side of the US. I was very careful to make sure that I drove on the left side of the road, and paid attention to turning left and right. Driving in Hokkaido is easier than in Honshu where Hokkaido streets are wider and straighter than those in Honshu.
At Kansai International Airport, I purchased a SIM card along with Japanese internet service not knowing it only access to Wi-Fi! So if there’s no Wi-Fi, it would be useless. I could buy more expensive service which included full access to the internet through Docomo. The total cost is much cheaper than using my Verizon’s international internet connection. Next time, I should do that. Luckily my rental car came with the navigation system, so I was able to reach my hotel in Sapporo without depending on my phone’s google navigation. The hotel is called Hotel Monterey Edelhof Sapporo. It is a beautiful hotel and comes with a public bath! The bath operation closes at 10:30 PM and I was too late to make use of it that day. However, I was going to come back to this hotel on 04/29/05, I remembered about the public bath. Also, I really like this hotel.
The next day, on 04/26/25, I checked out of the hotel and headed to Niseko ski resort. I was very careful in driving but slowly I was getting used to since I used to drive a car when I used to live in Japan. On the way to Niseko ski resort, I saw a huge, beautiful mountain. Later, I learned that it is called Mt. Yotei, also known as Ezo Fuji since it looks like Mt. Fuji. Ezo means Hokkaido. 
When I arrived at Niseko ski resort, snow was already melted at several spots. It was late in season, so I expected that. I heard the announcement that its gondola operation was temporarily halted due to the strong wind. I prepared snowboarding gear and felt I might make a mistake in coming to that late in the season. But due to my meeting with a friend in Tokyo in May, this plan was made.
It was a second day in Japan and due to jet lag, I was not in best condition so after a few runs, I went to the ski lodge where people in Japan called “Rest house.” There was a restaurant on the second floor, and I saw a white guy there. I talked to him in English. We were both sorry for the windy condition and the entire ski operation might be stopped soon. I was bummed but I got a lunch body. I ordered Katsu curry, and it was so delicious! I thought I was the only fool to come to the ski resort this late in the season, but he had the same idea too! His name is Robin and is from Denmark. His job is to fix the windmill’s blades. He was sent to Japan for that.
While we were talking, we found a huge natural hot spring nearby through google. It’s called Oyunuma Pond which is a huge pond and not for human use. Since the Niseko ski resort shut down the operation around 2 pm due to the strong wind, we decided to visit there. But first, I had to check in to my hotel. It is called Niseko Northern Resort ANNUPURI. After checking in, I sent Robin a text to visit Oyumuma Pond and it took only 15-minute drive. It was such a beautiful scenery and I’ve never seen anything like it. There is an Onsen nearby. That’s for the public use. We went into the Onsen to see if we could use it even though Robin had multiple tattoos. I really learned that Japan is very strict about tattoo. They prohibit people from using a public bath if one has extensive tattoos and he cannot hide it through stickers. Since Robin had too many tatoos to get into the Onsen, we decided not to stay there.
I invited Robin to my hotel’s lounge and had a drink. He showed me the picture of Goryokaku which is a star fort in Hakodate. I’ve never seen the star shaped fort and got my curiosity. By meeting Robin, we discovered Oyunuma pond, and I learned about Goryokaku! We planned to ski together the next day. 
On Sunday 4/27/25, I bought some musubi and coffee from a convenience store last night for my breakfast. However, that did not satisfy my stomach. Although the hotel’s breakfast buffet was expensive, $16, I went there to satisfy my stomach before snowboarding. Oh my gosh, the food was amazing! I got a traditional Japanese breakfast which consists of rice, miso soup, fish, nori, etc. After the great breakfast, I was ready for snowboarding! I found out that I could go to the Niseko’s slope directly from my hotel!! I have never stayed in a hotel where I could just walk out the door and start snowboarding!! The weather was much better than yesterday and lifts and a gondola were operational. I had such a great time snowboarding from nearly the top of the mountain. I saw several Japanese put a cover which covers top portion on their snowboard. I asked one of them whether she was an instructor since the cover advertised the ski school. She told me no and the purpose of the cover was to protect the inside of the gondola from scratch by snowboard’s edges! None of US ski resort cares about this! I came across Japanese culture! Robin from Denmark and I kept missing each other and finally we met at a ski lodge around noon when he was eating his lunch. Robin got hurt his knee that day and could not go on. After nice conversation, he went back to where he stayed for his work and did not return to the ski resort for this season. One of the worker at the restaurant was listening to our conversation. She was curious since a Japanese guy kept speaking English to a white guy. I told her about my passion to English and moving to the United States. She was pretty inspired by my story.
On Monday 4/28/25, after I woke up, I saw the news on TV and found out that full of cherry blossoms at Goryokaku!! Robin from Denmark showed me the picture of that place and now there are so many cherry blossoms trees blooming there! My curiosity to visit there grew so much but I still wanted to snowboard. Since I snowboarded hard the previous day, my legs were hurting. At the slope, I met a ski instructor from an Easter European country which I don’t remember exactly from which country. I told him about the Goryoakku and he told me it would take about 2 to 3 hour drive from this ski resort. After few runs, I could not suppress my curiosity to Goryokaku anymore despite the weather being so nice for snowboarding. I quickly went back to my hotel and changed my attire, got into the car and started to drive to Hakodate.
The drive was really fun and I got to enjoy the Hokkaido scenary. After about 3 hours, I reached Goryokaku around 4 pm. Oh my gosh! It was so beautiful! I haven’t seen cherry blossoms for nearly 20 years, I was so happy. Cherry blossom season in Osaka was from mid-March to early April, I thought I would have missed cherry blossom again in this Japan visit but Hokkaido’s cherry blossom season starts much later than Osaka so not only I get to snowboard but also I get to see the cherry blossom! I walked around the Goryokaku taking pictures and videos. When I was about to leave the place, I noticed about the tower nearby. I learned that it has an observation deck for Goryokaku. The tower is called Goryokaku tower. I don’t know when I can come back to this place in the future, I decided to go up the observation deck. The view of Goryokaku from the deck was amazing! After I really enjoyed the scenary, I drove back to my hotel.
On the next day, Tuesday, 04/29/25, I had a breakfast buffet from the hotel and got ready to pack my snowboard. I always take off the bindings from the snowboard to dry both bindings and snowboard. While I was getting my bindings, I lost a washer for one of the screws to connect the bindings to the snowboard! I searched everywhere and could not find it. I even got a help from hotel workers and no luck. Since I was not going to snowboard anymore during my trip, I just packed my snowboard, checked out the hotel, and headed to Otaru, a city in Hokkaido.
I learned about Otaru from a Japanese facebook group lady. Otaru locates near the Japan sea and is famous for the great seafood! The view near Otaru was amazing! I first stopped at Komeda café and studied about Otaru. I decided to park my car and walked along the famous cAll Nippon Airwaysl. While walking, I got really hungry and found a sushi restaurant. Oh my gosh! The tuna and salmon were amazing! I know good sushi in Japan but these were exceptional. I walked around Otaru to visit multiple tourist attractions and head to the hotel in Sapporo. 
I had a mission for this trip which was to visit all the thriller night bar’s live performances in Sapporo, Tokyo, and Osaka. I found the thriller night bar in Susukino Sapporo which was not very far from my hotel! It was just next subway train stop. The thriller night bar features a professional ghost story teller. Sinc childhood, I enjoyed listening to scary stories! I had a good time there! One of the figure at the corner seemed to be haunted and the staff did tell me that they experienced some unnatural phenomena at that corner!
On the next day, Wednesday 04/30/25, I wanted to tour around Sapporo city. I started with the famous clock tower. It was 5 minute walk from my hotel! Then I walked to the TV tower and went up to the observation deck. There I met two girls from Portugal and I explained to them how to use stamps in four different locations to create a nice picture, that is each stamp was a part of the whole picture. Not knowing unusual experience happened later on.
I moved on to Sapporo beer garden which used to be the beer factory and now is a museum and a gift shop. There I learned about the history of Sapporo beer. I learned about Japan’s first brewmater, Seibei Nakagawa. He left Japan at age 17 when it was nearly impossible for a regular citizen to do so. He learned beer crafting in Germany. Eventually, he met several helping hands. This really tells me to the importance of following our passion. When we follow our dreams, we keep meeting the right people to help us reach our goals. I also followed my passion and met several helping hands to establish life in the US. After the Sapporo Beer Garden, I drove to the factory for “Shiroi Koibito” also known as “Chocolat Blanc et Langue de Chat.” It is a very famous chocolate brand. When I arrived there, it reminded me of Wonka Chocolate factory in the movie! It is like an amusement park! So many nice decorations along with the actual factory. But I got there too late for the factory tour. Bummer! After I walked around the amusement park side, I went inside the gift shop, that was where I met two Portuguese girls five hours ago at the Sapporo TV tower! What are the odds of meeting them again five hours later in a different place! Actually, I have experienced this type of encounter several times already where I keep meeting the same people multiple times in a big city. One of the girls said I was like a magnet! When I asked them about the factory tour, they also got there late and couldn’t join the tour. That reminded me of Robin who went to the Niseko ski resort late in the season like me! That is, I was not alone who went to the ski resort in late season and arrived at the chocolate factory late to miss the factory tour!
That night, I was looking for a karaoke bar and learned about “Showa Karaoke.” Showa is a period between 1926 and 1989 under the reign of Showa Emperor. Karaoke room business dominated Japan from 1990s, but the people started to miss the karaoke bar where people can sing in front of strangers and the music during the Showa period became popular among young people from their parents’ influence. This is like the popularity of 70s and 80s rock in the US among young people. The bar is called “Yesterday Once More” and is in Susukino which is the same area as the Thriller night bar and one subway stop away from my hotel! My hotel is in such a great location. Before hitting the bar, I got hungry and really wanted to eat ramen which is famous for Sapporo. I found one and the taste was unreal!
I found Showa karaoke, “Yesterday Once More” and there were no customers. I was ready to go back to my hotel, but I talked to the bar owner a bit. Eventually, another customer showed up and I decided to stay. Later, more people showed up and got super lively. I really had a great time there. I sang bunch of English songs during Showa period, that is, 70s and 80s rock! People loved it.
The next day, Thursday 05/01/25, I drove back to Nippon rental car to return the rental car and got to Chitose airport. I used Japan Airlines to Tokyo.
In summary, the unusual things I experience during my Hokkaido visit were I renewed my Japanese driver’s license last year not knowing I was going to use it in Japan this year. I flew All Nippon Airways domestic flight for the second time and the first time was 42 years ago. I was not alone to visit Niseko ski resort and met a guy from Denmark. Because of him, I learned about Goryokaku and experienced Cherry blossoms. I met two Portuguese girls at the Sapporo TV tower and five hours later, I met them at the gift shop at “Shiroi Koibito” factory. I thought only karaoke room business, but Showa karaoke bars started to gain popularity so that a guy like me get to sing in front of strangers!
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