The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps
If you’ve not been to cold countries and you’re thinking of how to layer clothes for winter, you’ve come to the right place! And you must definitely read on if you’re a Singaporean and a female. Being from tropical Singapore, I am like most Singaporeans …
Are you staying in Grand Hirafu? Find out where to eat in Niseko below: 1) An Dining We stayed at Ki Niseko, where An Dining and An Café & Bar are located on the ground floor. They offer both fine and casual dining. The Head …
With day plans to ski or snowboard on Niseko’s powdery snow, it’s vital to find a place to rest those tired muscles on a comfortable bed. Better still, soak them in an onsen. Before you search for that perfect accommodation, make your planning easier by reading where to stay in Niseko first. Shortlist the area or village you want to stay in. And if you finally decided on Hirafu Village, you may want to consider Ki Niseko, a ski-in ski-out hotel. Read on for our Ki Niseko review.
My Top 3 Dream Stays in Niseko, Japan are all located in the Hirafu Village. And I got to stay in one of them – Ki Niseko, because I won a The Luxe Nomad contest!
As for us, we stayed in a 1-bedroom apartment with Mt Yotei view during winter from 1 to 3 March 2016. It costs about S$1,800 for 2 nights. Of course, you can grab special deals on their website or best rates from The Luxe Nomad.
After a long journey filled with delays and waiting from Noboribetsu, we finally reached Kutchan train station exhausted. Yes, be sure you alight at the right place, it’s Kutchan and not Niseko JR station.
However, time was tight because we arrived behind schedule. We reached the station only 2-3 minutes before Ki Niseko’s complimentary shuttle service was scheduled to depart Kutchan station. As stated on the website, the bus might arrive 5 minutes earlier or later.
So when we didn’t see the bus after 15 minutes past the scheduled time, we got anxious. We were contemplating to hop on the crowded Niseko United Shuttle instead (for more information on the various Niseko Shuttle Buses). Because if we missed this bus, we would have to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus, or another 1+ hour for Ki Niseko’s shuttle bus.
Thank God, we managed to get the friendly station staff to call the hotel for us and check if we have missed the free shuttle. Just as they were checking for us, we saw Ki Niseko’s shuttle bus (more like a shuttle van) rolling into the train station’s carpark.
Thankfully we waited for it! With the Ki Niseko’s shuttle van, we could rest comfortably and not squeeze with the many others on the Niseko United Shuttle. The van was spacious enough to ferry 4-6 passengers comfortably. The driver also helped us with the luggage. The best thing was, the shuttle van brought us straight to Ki Niseko’s doorsteps. We did not have to sit through Niseko United Shuttle’s multiple stops!
We received a welcoming reception from the doormen and an English speaking Caucasian lady at the front desk. Later I found out that Ki Niseko had a handful of Westerners working in seasonal positions. This was so that they could ski or snowboard in Niseko during their free time. Simply put, a working holiday for them.
Anyway, I wasn’t expecting a friendly front desk because they sounded unhelpful in the email correspondences. I had assumed it’s because we were not paid customers but winners. But the onsite experience turned out to be pleasantly different. Moreover, after days of travelling in English-scarce Japan, it was a respite to converse well with the staff, and not having to speak in broken Japanese or English.
One other notable thing we noticed was the number of Singaporean guests. We could easily hear the Singaporean accent around Ki Niseko. Even the guests staying in the rooms opposite ours were Singaporeans.
Location, location, location.
From the hotel’s side door, it’s a walking distance of about 100m to our ski school, GoSnow, and 200m to the ski wear and equipment rental shop: Grand Hirafu Rentals Gondola Shop. Skiing turned out to be exhausting for first timers like us, and this location helped us a great deal.
After a super tiring ski lesson, we just need to take a few steps before we were back in our room to rest. And during lunch break, we could sneak back to our room and have our bento lunch bought from the convenience store the night before. You might be thinking, “Huh, bento?!”. Find out why we ate bento in Niseko. :)
Even though we reached Ki Niseko later than expected, we still had time to put down our luggage before making our way to the rental shop before closing time. That’s only possible because the rental shop was super nearby. The most grateful part was our return trip from the rental shop. We carried our ski wear, gears and boots back to the hotel so that we could gear up for our ski lesson first thing the next morning. Imagine if our accommodation had been a bus ride away!
P.s. We could have put our ski gears at the rental shop, but Ki Niseko has a private ski valet (see below).
Being first timers, we didn’t know the proper way to carry our skis. Hence we fumbled our way back to the hotel through the thick snow, which wasn’t easy to walk in. And the walk in and out of the hotel with those gears were made especially difficult because of a mini slope leading into Ki Niseko. The snow had buried the steps of the slope and the staff did not bother to shovel them away.
Wait a minute, mini slope? Yes, this mini slope and the close proximity to Hirafu Gondola and Holiday Pair lifts is the reason why Ki Niseko is marketed as a ski-in and ski-out hotel. That means people could ski straight from the lifts, down the mini slope and into the hotel in just a few minutes. Or you can ski straight from the hotel to the lifts. For experienced skiers and snowboarders who go up and down the ski run, this is good news! You save the time and effort trudging through the snow with the skis and poles hanging over you.
However, the mini slope was too steep for beginners skiers like us, so the ski-in ski-out feature didn’t make much of a difference for us. Moreover, if you are first timer, you might not even have the chance to use the lifts. But we did! (Read about our first skiing experience at Niseko with GoSnow.)
If you want further convenience for the rental, Rhythm Snow Sports has a service counter in Ki Niseko. They will send the rental gears from the main shop to the hotel and you can simply return your gears at the counter. One thing I didn’t like was that I couldn’t try the boots and clothing for size. And it’s relatively more expensive.
One downside of the hotel was that it is not near the main area of restaurants and mini-marts. Yes, Ki Niseko has a complimentary Hirafu Village Shuttle bus to bring us to the main area every 10 minutes. This is different from the Kutchan Town shuttle which fetched us to and from Kutchan station.
But when we wanted to get to the restaurants on the first night, the Hirafu Village Shuttle bus stopped running because of the poor road conditions caused by heavy snow. Thank goodness, the bad weather was not on a day we had to catch a train. In the end, we walked on the thick blanket of snow for about 20 cold minutes to reach the main area.
photo taken from our room
From our room, we could see Mt Yotei, Mt Annupuri and the land covered in powdery white snow. For a premium, you can get this good view too. Otherwise, you can book the rooms with the resort mountain view, facing the ski run and lifts.
However, we were not in the room most of the time because we were out skiing during the day. By the time we returned at night, it’s darkness outside. Even if we did enjoy the view in the morning before we rushed out, and when we sneaked back during lunch, the volcano was often shrouded in clouds, especially on a snowy day. It seemed like foggy conditions obstructing Mt Yotei view are highly likely during winter months.
Also, we drew up the curtains when we sleep because of privacy. The rooms facing Mt Yotei also face the road and hence might get noisy at the lower levels.
Tip: Save that extra money meant for a Mt Yotei view and get yourself a good dinner. However, if money is not an issue for you, it’s always nice to wake up to a possible awesome mountainous scenery.
photo by deeppowdertours.com
Rooms with a resort view might not be too bad, with a view of bared trees in a blanket of snow, like the photo below. We took this photo at the hotel’s side door. So with a little imagination, the view from the rooms will be to the left of the photo. It wouldn’t matter much because like I said, you will probably be out skiing or snowboarding. If you are getting resort view, try to get higher levels.
Tip: Don’t get a room on the 2nd floor, which is near to the ski valet. It will be noisy.
Ki Niseko has all the usual hotel amenities with a few extra additions: complimentary Wi-Fi, satellite TV with English language channels, humidifiers and air conditioning.
Being a serviced apartment, it also has a kitchen well-stocked with utensils and a washing machine with a free packet of detergent powder.
However, at a hotel that charges a premium, it’s surprising that they only provide one bottle of drinking water per guest for the WHOLE STAY. We thought they forgot to restock and hence requested, but were told as such. They should seriously consider replenishing the bottles of water daily.
Serviced apartments are good for people who plan to stay for at least 4-5 days in Niseko. You can buy groceries and cook, saving your wallet from the overpriced restaurants in Niseko.
Even though we didn’t manage to utilise the kitchen, the washer was a good thing for us to wash our wet and dirty clothes from our first day of skiing and the five days in Japan.
Serviced apartments is also good for people who are in groups. You can gather at the room and dine together. The apartment was a bit too big for the two of us, but I appreciated having a proper dining table to have our lunch and dinner (find out why this helped with our dining in Niseko). Furthermore, the spacious living room was good for us to spread our many layers of ski wear and different ski gears.
The bed was comfortable. There was also a dehumidifier in the bedroom to prevent us from waking up with chapped lips and dry skin.
The bathroom and its bathtub are big by Japan’s standards. After days of being in small toilets, it’s nice to be able to move freely about in the toilet.
I doubt you will be using much of the bathtub because Ki Niseko has in-house onsens. If you still want to run a hot tub, there’s hot water for you to do so. Oh! The toilet bowl has the standard Japanese washlet that comes with bidet feature.
After a cold and tiring day from skiing, I was looking forward to relaxing my body and mind in Ki Niseko’s mineral-rich natural onsens. Hot spring water does wonders to aching and tired muscles. I thoroughly enjoyed the onsen experience in Noboribetsu, and couldn’t wait to get into an onsen again.
Ki Niseko has 2 private family onsens, 4 public onsens (2 indoor, 2 outdoor). They are complimentary for hotel guests. Be sure to book early for your preferred 1-hr time slot at the private onsen as it’s first-come-first-served. Thankfully for us, we managed to reserve two slots for the private onsen when we checked in, one for each of the 2 nights we stayed there.
Image: Public Onsen (kiniseko.com)
It’s a great opportunity for hubby and me to soak in the private onsen together. We weren’t able to do so in the public onsens at Noboribetsu or Otaru. We had an awesome time soaking and talking! The 1-hour time slot is more than enough because we could not possibly soak in the hot spring water for too long.
But nowhere else beat the onsen experience we had in Noboribetsu – the ambience, the toiletries, and hot spring mineral water. Nevertheless, we were grateful that we did not have to travel out of the hotel in search for an onsen. Saved us the energy, time and money! And onsen after a day of skiing was simply irresistible.
If onsen is not relaxing enough for you, you can check out Ki Niseko’s spa services which include massage.
According to Ki Niseko, they had the first ever private Ski Valet service in Niseko. Heading down to the hotel’s second floor, we reached the ski valet area where they kept our boots, skis and poles. We exchanged our shoes for our ski boots and grabbed our skis and poles. After we put on our boots, we simply walked out of the exit and towards the school.
Tip: Wear your hotel slippers down, so that you can easily slip in and out of them for your ski boots.
This private ski valet is more useful for guests who have their own skis and snowboards. Because guests who are renting and staying in the Grand Hirafu can store their rented gears overnight at the rental shop near the slopes.
Regardless, it’s still better to have a private ski valet. This meant a lower chance for your gears to be misplaced. Even if it’s misplaced, the recovery time will be faster. The staff scour through fewer identification tags tagged on the gears at the private valet than at the rental shop.
An Dining and An Café & Bar are located on the ground floor of the hotel. They offer both fine and casual dining. The Head Chef Shinichi Maeda uses only the freshest Hokkaido produce in his dishes. Yes, we did see cartloads of fresh seafood arriving one afternoon when we were leaving the hotel.
We had our buffet breakfast at An Dining. The food was a fusion of east and west, with a leaning towards being an English breakfast. It was not too bad but nothing to shout about.
But the food tasted better during lunch. For one of our two lunches at Niseko, I tried the chicken and avocado sandwich at An Dining. This simple fare costs ¥650 (~S$8). We ordered the cheapest on the menu because we didn’t want to spend too much on lunch. Moreover, we didn’t want to be too full as we had to ski for another few hours after lunch.
p.s. Find out how we settled all our meals in Niseko! :)
Check-in: 3pm | Check-out: 11am (strict)
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www.kiniseko.com
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Niseko is a town located in Hokkaido, Japan. Famous for its ski resorts in Japan, there are endless light powder snow, spectacular backdrop, long ski runs, trail skis and many after-ski activities. I assume you already have plans to ski or snowboard on Niseko’s powdery …
About Takinoya Bekkan Tamanoyu A main reason why we chose Noboribetsu Onsen Town over Toyako with Lake Toya is because we wanted to stay in a ryokan. So, we ended up at Takinoya Bekkan Tamanoyu (滝乃家別館 玉乃湯) at Noboribetsu. Read the previous post for the decision process and …
We wanted to enjoy Hokkaido’s natural hot spring (“Onsen”) and was deciding between two Onsen towns: Toyako and Noboribetsu in winter. They are near to each other, but it’s hard to travel between the two places unless you have a car. Toyako boasts of a majestic natural landscape with Lake Toya, while Noboribetsu is famous for the Hell Valley. I am not a big fan of hell and its demonic figurines.
photo: praying demon statue is enshrined with a red and blue demon guarding it
But in the end, we chose Noboribetsu because we wanted to stay in a ryokan, and we could not find a decent one at Lake Toya, where there’s not many accommodation options to begin with. Moreover, I read somewhere mentioning that Lake Toya was like Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake, of which I was unimpressed by.
Also, Noboribetsu Onsen Town seemed to be more impressive – it is Hokkaido’s most famous and highly recommended hot spring resort. There’s supposedly eleven different kinds of thermal waters with healing properties. They are considered among Japan’s best and most effective.
p.s. We super love our stay at Takinoya Bekkan Tamanoyu!
We travelled on the JR from Tomamu to Noboribetsu JR Station using our Hokkaido railway pass. We had an hour stopover at Minami Chitose where we went to Rera Chitose Outlet Mall to pass time. Because of bad snow weather, trains were cancelled/delayed, and our reserved seats became non-reserved (this can happen – I’ll probably write more of this in another post).
photo taken outside Noboribetsu train station
Anyway, because of the train delay, we arrived at Noboribetsu JR station when the bus driver just left for his one-hour lunch break. We could have taken a taxi from the station to Onsen Town for ¥1920 (S$24), but we didn’t.
We waited less than an hour because the driver was kind enough to cut short his lunch break to pick up the stranded travellers. It’s about 15 minutes bus ride from Noboribetsu JR Station to the Onsen Town (near to Hell Valley).
We bought a round trip bus ticket at ¥620/pax (S$7.80) from the train ticket office. If not, you can buy one way ticket at ¥340/pax (S$4.30).
Board from the rear, take a numbered ticket from a machine box, then pay the bus driver when alighting in the front. If you bought the round trip ticket, you don’t need to take the numbered ticket, just pass him one of your tickets when alighting.
photo taken around Noboribetsu train station
Since I’m talking about transportation, we had a rather shocking experience when we left Noboribetsu. Without unpredictable snow conditions in Singapore, we were not prepared for all the last minute disruptions weather can cause.
On the morning we checked out, we asked the receptionist for the bus timings towards the JR station. To our horror, she told us in limited English that all train operations has ceased! *Gasp* What?! Are we going to be stranded in Noboribetsu for another night?! We are going to miss our ski lesson at Niseko!!
Curious? :P Find out what happened to us at: Winter Experience of JR Train in Hokkaido (Part 2)
If you are going to Noboribetsu in Winter, remember to wear shoe spikes for winter! It was useful, especially when we climbed the wet and slippery slope up from the bus station to our accommodation with our luggage. But it could also be because the snow fell heavily in the morning (that’s why trains were cancelled).
When we reached in the afternoon, there were only a few hours left before the sky turned dark (it’s winter). And since we were leaving Noboribetsu the next morning, we only had time to visit Hell Valley (Jigoku-Dani), Sengen Park and walk around Onsen Town.
I would have wanted to visit Oyunuma Brook Natural Footbath, but apparently it was too cold for us to soak our legs in winter. Moreover, it’s quite a distance from where we stayed even though it’s walkable. Clustered with this Footbath are other attractions: Taisho Jigoku, Mt. Hiyori, Oyunuma, and Oku-no-yu.
I was initially interested in Noboribetsu Date Jidaimura too, but after reading some online reviews, I didn’t think it was worth the effort, time and money. If you must go, you can take a bus there. The other famous attraction is Noboribetsu Bear Park where you can take a ropeway to reach. I wasn’t that interested in bears.. so skipped it.
Being an Onsen Town, there are onsens in most, if not all the accommodations. You can also find standalone “onsen shops”. You can hop around to try the various onsens/hot springs around Noboribetsu. You just need to pay a small fee to enter and use (incl. hotel onsen).
Our ryokan only has four small onsens (2 for male, 2 for female), while bigger hotels usually have many hot spring with different types of thermal water. However, the ryokan’s onsen was good enough for us. Read about our awesome experience at Takinoya Bekkan Tamanoyu.
We didn’t have a proper sit down lunch since we left Tomamu for Noboribetsu, and when we arrived, alas, most of the food outlets in the Onsen Town were closed! It was during the window between lunch and dinner. Sobs.
Hence, we settled for some snack and soft serve ice cream. We got the ice cream with a piping hot sweet potato snack at Sugi Yohoen (which sells a variety of honey). Not too bad. You can also get ice cream at Coffee Shop Milky House. You can also find more food at convenience store.
There were some other online recommended food we wanted to try but didn’t get to: Fukuan soba noodle shop, and Wakasaimo with beer. Wakasaimo is a baked confection made using mashed peas and beans to replicate the taste of baked yams, where yams cannot be grown in Hokkaido.
If you are not hungry, there are a couple of souvenir shops for you to buy gifts. The shops sell similar stuff along the theme of demons and owls.
Walking further up the Onsen Town street towards Hell Valley, there’s an Enma-do Performance (Shrine) at 10am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 8pm, 9pm* (*May-Oct). Apparently, it’s a 5 to 10 minutes robotic show.
Then further up is Sengen Park, a park with a geyser erupting by the hot spring flow from Hell Valley (Jigoku-Dani).
Thank God we managed to catch the geyser’s natural symphony performance shrouded with a cloud of steam. Because apparently it happens about every three hours interval.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” – Psalm 23:4
The whitewashed scenery was so so so beautiful. You can easily take photos that are Instagram, Pinterest worthy. Theme of photoshoot: Winter Sonata.
Of course, to get these beautiful pictures, there was some minor hard work behind the scenes.
For the photo of me sitting on the bench (above), I had to trudge through the snow with my feet stepping deep into the snow – it was up to knee length – and thus making my shoes and pants wet. And when I sat on the bench with snow, my pants got wet. The price of taking beautiful photos. Hehe.
This was me taking baby steps before the knee length deep snow. Of course we had to trek up for some of the views, which wasn’t too difficult with the man-made paths and beautiful white landscape.
Other than trekking, we had to climb up a small slippery slope with a rope!
Oh! And there’s a strong Sulphur smell. I didn’t mind it, but some people might not like it. I especially like the Sulphur onsen in our accommodation, made my skin so smooth after that. Read about our onsen experience at the ryokan!
The photo with birds soaring in the sky looked awesome right? But we were in hell valley, and thousands of birds flying and crowing above us was kinda scary. Scenes of horror movies came to mind. Note to self: Not to let my future children watch horror shows and fill their minds with fear.
Before I end, I want to mention about Tessen-Ike, a geyser located in the center of Hell Valley. I didn’t realise we visited Tessen-Ike until I wrote this post and saw a brochure of it in its snow-less surroundings.
But I think the snow covered the geyser which was behind me (picture above). I was still wondering why there was a ‘danger keep out’ sign when there was only a small hole of calm water as we looked down from the platform.
At last, leaving our footsteps behind as we left Hell Valley.
Following the bible verse I quoted in the front, I was reminded of the ‘Footprints’ poem by Mary Stevenson (excerpt):
God whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
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Continuing from Part 1 with useful information of transportation in Hokkaido, I was contemplating whether to write about our experience. I decided to go ahead because I know it will prep you better for whatever that might happen while travelling on the JR Train in Hokkaido during winter.I …
I think it really pays off to research about the transportation in Hokkaido, Tokyo, or Japan for that matter, before you fly over. It will save you time and money, and you will less likely be overwhelmed and be lost in the complex transportation system. A Singaporean friend living in Tokyo for a few …