Mountain Bike Weekend In Niseko

NisekoMtb.com and Black Diamond Lodge is doing thier thing for the mountain bike community of Hokkaido and Niseko.

Its going to be a great weekend of mountain biking so show your support and get on Saturday & Sunday to check it out!

Saturday - Practice day
- Grand Hirafu, Center 4 Lift.
- NisekoMtb.com & Black Diamond Lodge dirt jump session and BYO BBQ & beverages!

Sunday - Race Day
- Grand Hirafu, Center 4 Lift

Niseko News

Niseko Is The Place It All Happens!

Tonight is the night of the Niseko Utari Music Festival at The Northern Fox! All we can hope for is that they have their shit together for tomorrow tonight!

White Bear Pension also looks like they are playing host to a local soccer club this weekend that is in town for a training weekend! White Bear Pension is located right next door to venue for tomorrows music festival - hope they don't plan on sleeping tonight! Go party next door boys!

The mountain bike crew headed by Nisekomtb.com commander (Martin) was out in the trees today adding some nice corner features to the D-sen track. The new feature will have you railing one of the last corners at mach 10!

Good luck to Martin at tomorrow’s downhill race in Teine, just outside of Sapporo.

Niseko will be hosting its own race on the last weekend of June, more details to follow!

Niseko News

Niseko Utari Festival

When: Sunday 22, June 2008
Where: The Northern Fox, Niseko
Cost: Advanced tickets 3,000yen
At the door 4,000yen

The Line Up & Times
Open - 16.00
Live 3 - 16.30
Live Charaves - 17.30
Live GOMA - 18.30
The Sun Paulo - 20.00
dachambo - 21.30
Cro-magnon - 23.00
DJ QLIONE - 24.00
DJ TOMO - 01.00
Close - 02.00

Hope to see everyone there! Should be a great night!

Niseko News

Niseko & G8 Summit

A police technician dispatched to Hokkaido for the Group of Eight (G8) summit meeting in July has been arrested for sneaking into a women's bathroom to take photos of a bathing woman, police said.

Read full article

Niseko News

Niseko Lift Ticket Prices

One of the major draw cards of taking your snow holiday in Niseko is the inexpensive lift tickets, you know, besides the massive amounts of powder snow, Japanese food and culture and the short flight times from Australia and other Asian countries!
Lift Ticket prices for Niseko for the 2008/09 season maybe going up in price! One thing that you need to keep in mind, they will be not even close to the cost of a lift ticket in Australia ($100 dollars a day is ridicules!) In fact the lift tickets for Niseko will only be going up 8%, so a 1 day lift ticket might get to the equivalent of $60AUS, yes, we said might!

Really it is surprising that people still go to the snow in Australia! Expensive lift prices, very poor snow conditions, over priced accommodation, massive crowds if it does snow and over priced food and beverage prices, should we continue?

Our message to the blog world that loves snow – “Come to Japan!”

Niseko Gets Environmental

Supermarkets in Kutchan, the town just outside of Niseko, have introduced the practice of charging for plastic bags!

Of course this a step in the right direction for the Niseko environment and the environment in general of course! It does seem that a lot more of an effort should be made to protect and improve the amount of negative factors that affect the environment considering the people of Niseko rely so heavily on environmental tourism.

So how will this affect you?

Well when you come to Niseko on your next snow holiday, consider bringing your “green” shopping bags from home, or buy ones to use here, or maybe even use the boxes that are provided at the supermarkets, but whatever you do, DON’T USE PLASTIC BAGS!
If you don’t use plastic, Mother Nature will of course reward you with nipple deep snow conditions for everyday of your holiday in Niseko!

We just hope you’re not a midget, nothing against midgets; we just want deeper snow than the height of midget nipples!

Niseko Getting Crazy!

For those of you that always wanted to know what was under the blanks of snow during the summer, here it is, well one of the delights of the area anyway – Asparagus!
To showcase the Asparagus of Niseko of course you need a free testing day at Niseko View Plaza weekend markets. During the summer months this is the place to get all your fresh fruit, vegetables and rice straight from the farmers.
So how was the Asparagus? Well it was as good as a vegetable could get, until you drown it in Japanese mayo, all of a sudden it was the most delightfully tasting thing you could experience! Hahahaha

You can see the excitement overcoming the lady as she tastes a snippet of Asparagus ecstasy!

How a piece of wood changed world history

As we have a considerable amount of spare time to waste, we end up finding some interesting and sometimes not so interesting articles and information on the web. So we thought it was time that we start sharing a few more of these with you.

Below is a extract from one of the articles that we have found today:

How a piece of wood changed world history.

Many times someone doing something a little different and having his or her ideas catch on has changed history. The pasteurizing of milk to prevent spoiling and contamination is a perfect example. Snowboarding was also the result of someone doing something a little different.

To view the full article please follow the link - How a piece of wood changed world history.

Japan Rail Hokkaido Going Green

In a step in the right direction to look after Japan’s environment, Japan Rail Hokkaido have been testing a form of transport that combines the function of a small bus and a train!

This hybrid form of transport has been developed to save on resources used in Hokkaido railway; often services in Hokkaido are extremely underused as the island only contains approximately 6% of the country’s population.

This is also a step in the right direction to help preserve one of Hokkaido’s major tourist attractions – winter! We hope more companies in Hokkaido will take a step in the “green direction” to help preserve the unique environmental conditions that brings a new way of looking at life after experiencing their first powder turns!

Niseko Hilton Official Opening

If you have not heard by now, the Higashiyama Prince Hotel has been undergoing a re-branding since the end of winter. The hotel is being operated by the Hilton group and will be called the Hilton Niseko Village.

The official open date is to be July 1st to the public and should prove to be a major draw card for international visitors looking for a first class one stop hotel experience. This will also affect not only the winter traveler but also the summer travel market to the Niseko as summer facilities are right on your doorstep, including, one 18 hole golf course, dirt buggy course, hiking trails and other assorted activities.

We hope that they invest in using the ski hill and area into building extensive mountain bike facilities, tires crossed!