The powder hunting continues for Miikka Hast & Jonas Hagström in Japan on the Protest Snowtour...
We rented a car from Sapporo Chitose airport and with some sort of English guidance from the Japanese GPS headed towards the middle parts of Hokkaido. Driving on the left side traffic and navigating in the middle of Japanese signs was interesting to say the least. We had heard of this volcano area called Tokachidake which is only hike access and rideable when the weather is clear since it's alpine terrain and very easily affected by the rapidly changing weather. The forecasts were promising so we decided to give it a try. 
After hours of driving and few U-turns because of closed mountain roads that the GPS didn't mention about we arrived to a small onsen/spa hotel Ryonkaku. The place felt like the most remote place on earth when we pulled to the parking lot with moonlight lighting the peaks and several meter high snow piles. There was only few cars on the parking lot but when we walked to the lobby we met Jake Blauvelt, Eric Jackson and Danny Kass right of the bat. Talk about the world getting smaller... it just did!
Apparently there was only few sunny days in January here, usually. We got three of them in a row, without any winds. We were told that you guys are very very lucky. We really believed it when we were hiking and riding on the ridges and gullies of a volcano in picture perfect scenery and weather. It was something we definitely didn't expect to find in Japan. We even found some steep and narrow couloirs and had one of the best runs of the season. Tokachidake is a wild place with fierce weather but we experienced it as good as it gets, I guess. It felt unrealistic to jump into an hot onsen pool surrounded by powder and beautiful volcano mountains after riding. The water was colored brown red by iron and heated by the volcanic ground. Relaxing in the hot water after long hikes and amazing rides. Beer has never tasted so good! Soul was resting in this setting and Japan was truly showing it's best sides to us. We felt so fortunate. 
We decided to check out Asahidake which was a hour drive away. Lots of film crews go there shoot and ride. It was also beautiful and equipped with a gondola where Tokachidake was only hiking. But the riding was short, tracked and flat compared to Tokachidake and we were not so stoked. Apparently the filming spots were hiding it the trees but they were short hits rather than longer runs. We went to the tourist info to search for a new direction. 
Forecasts were predicting the heaviest snowfall in Niseko area so we drove to Asahikawa, ate the best sushi in town, had the single most expensive beer of our lives (two beers 45€) and slept. In the morning we continued to Niseko where it was slowly starting to snow. We came to Hirafu village, which was the center of Niseko United, and had lunch. We saw more westeners in that restaurant that we had encountered on the whole trip so far. We had found the Whistler of Japan. On top of that it was the Chinese new year and apparently the busiest time of the year of the dragon. We managed to find a room at Pension Bremen which was not fully open yet. It was nice and quiet and not filled with loud partying aussies like all the other places. 
It didn't snow so much as forecasted in the next days and went to smaller resorts close by to avoid crowds. We checked out Rusutsu, which had nice terrain, and Kiroro. They were good places but the snow was not what we had hoped and came here for. We were overly spoiled and greedy looking for the world famous bottomless light Niseko pow. We had one full day and morning left of riding and we were almost giving up on experiencing the deep snow conditions in Niseko when it started puking. First it was 70 cm over night on the mountain and it just kept on dumping the whole day and next night. We were swimming again in waist to chest deep light pow! We rode on all of the resorts of Niseko United as the tracks were getting covered almost as fast as they were made! This is what we were after here and we got it right before we had to leave! We truly were the luckiest guys! We were gettin face shots, choking and swimming until we had to pack the car again and head to back to Sapporo. We had still had time check out the neon lights before flying home. Japan gave us a experience of a life time and we wish to come back soon.
Here are some videos Tokachidake & Niseko: