Snowboarding in Japan

During these past winter months in Japan, I was blessed with the opportunity (and funds) to go snowboarding not once, but twice. The first time was a small road trip with four friends to a place called Niigata. I was not in the original plans for the trip, but luckily someone dropped out at the last minute and I was able to smooth talk my way in. The second trip was a huge group trip, the annual Global House ski trip. After leaving at 10:30 pm, we arrive in Hakuba(above picture), at around 5 am. As you can imagine this trip was a social affair for many, but I went for the snow so I'll skip right to the boarding.

From my limited experience in boarding in Japan here are some things that I noticed. First the rental fees are really cheap in comparison to America. Boots, bindings, and board rental only run around 20 bucks. The lift tickets are a little cheaper too, about 30 bucks a day. But you pay for what you get, the rental gear is really bad quality. But hey, I would rather break cheap rental board than a 400 dollar snowboard...

On the same note of expensive snowboard gear. It might have just been my imagination, but I seriously think that for the Japanese,

But it is the subtle differences that really make snowboarding in a different country a fun experience. For starters, in a way that is very Japanese, people put forth a great effort to avoid getting on a ski lift with a stranger. I, on the other hand, usually try to get paired up with strangers. There is no ice breaker quite like the realization that the stranger sitting next to you might be the last person you see before you plummet to your death. So I usually take advantage of that fear and quickly make friends with whoever I share the lift with. In Japan it was quite difficult though. I tried hanging back in line so that people would be forced to join me, but instead they just waited even further back. Defeated I went up alone. I realized that the only way to ride a lift with strangers was to ask, or to sneak into their lift. Both methods left the Japanese people very surprised.


An entire table of Japanese people knocked out. Everyone in the ski lodge took a picture of this.




The actual slopes that I went on were pretty decent. Niigata's slopes were very wide and straight, but that gave plenty of opportunities to practice jumps and other tricks, or just book it down the mountain. The front side of the mountain at Hakuba, turned to ice really early in the day due to the vast amount of people. But luckily, these people didn't know there was a back side to the mountain, making it pure magic(above picture). Complete with a terrain park, Hakuba has definitely moved up to one of my favorite places to board.

It is always helpful when learning about a new country and a new culture to compare standards. For me snowboarding was that standard. If I get the chance I would love to travel to other countries around the world and see what snowboarding is like there.