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Japan update and focus on Nagano (Hakuba)

Here we are in March. And for most of Japan, nature seems to have taken that as a clear sign to quickly switch to spring mode. It has been a generally mild and spring-like start to the month along with some nasty rain in lots of places. It might not feel like it right now, but historically March has a habit of delivering some good surprises and can offer some really feel-good conditions on the slopes. At the time of writing its early days yet, so hopefully, we might get some of that this season. Come the end of March and early April, lots of ski hills in Japan will be closing for the season, but a fair number of…

David T 22nd March 2018

RoundupsUncategorised

Mushi-atsui! (Hot and humid)

Late July 2018 Over the last month or so you may well have noticed some items on the international news about the extreme weather conditions being experienced in Japan this summer. In the first part of July, Western Japan endured torrential rains and widespread flooding which has unfortunately taken hundreds of lives and caused havoc over large areas. Many homes and other buildings have been destroyed, so a full recovery is going to be a slow process. At the same time, this year the official ‘rainy season’ (tsuyu) generally started a little earlier than usual and was unseasonably short, bringing comparatively little rain to many eastern regions of the country. Next up was the blistering heat. Japan is no stranger…

David T 5th December 2017

Roundups

Japan 2018-2019 early season

23rd November is ‘Labour Thanksgiving Day’ in Japan, or kinro-kansha-no-hi in Japanese. Various events are often held on this national holiday. Importantly for us snow lovers, it is the date when some of the major ski resorts in Japan hope to be able to open from - whatever day of the week it falls on. This year, the 23rd was a Friday, and at the time of writing that was one week ago. Famous ski resorts in Niseko, Hakuba, Nozawa and Yuzawa (amongst others) always have the 23rd November as their planned opening date of the ski season, though in reality it is always a rather optimistic target. It is perhaps more of a marker, with that date being the…

David T 5th December 2017

LifestyleRoundupsWeather

The 2017-2018 Japan season has ended… almost!

The spring ski season in Japan often seems rather long, with quite a few ski resorts at higher elevations managing to remain at least part open until the second week of May. It has seemed particularly long this time around. I think it is fair to say that most regions around Japan did not receive much snowfall once we got into March this year and so it was good that there was generally decent snowfall during the early and peak season months. So here we are closing in on the end of May. By the end of the ‘Golden Week’ run of national holidays on 6th May, most ski resorts had closed leaving just a handful of ski lifts still…

David T 5th December 2017

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