I woke up to rain, bleh. Last night’s sleep was much better. I wore my fleece leggings and an extra long sleeve shirt and sweater with my pjs and that helped. I caught a local bus from the station to Niseko Hirafu, the ski resort town. With rain, I had already given up on cross country skiing. After arriving in Niseko, the slopes looked horrible, completely covered in mist and fog. I walked down into the town, trying to find somewhere to eat. I didn’t have any proper rain gear, but my jacket and snow pants held up. I ended up at a creperie as most places were pretty full. After a pretty short wait, I got my table. So many of the workers were French! All the lovely accents. The food was amazing. I had a savory galette and then a sweet banana crepe with ice cream. I even got to order in French. Absolutely delicious. I had a nice conversation with the Australians who were my table partners.

The interesting part of Hirafu was how intensely expensive it is - most pricey place I’ve been in Japan (paying around $20 per meal)- and how it felt like I had left Japan. All the signs were written in English or romaji. Westerners everywhere you looked and only English in the background. The most Japanese I heard was at the convenience store. It was crazy.

Post lunch, I stopped by the convenience store to buy some conditioner and I went to a nearby onsen. Most provide shampoo, but my hair is picky and I didn’t want to end up with a nest of snarls. After some research, people said this was the cheapest one and had a nice outdoor bath. The way there was slippery and downhill. I should have gotten some traction pads for my shoes. The onsen had just opened. It was my first time paying via machine to buy my ticket. First time onsening with only foreigners ha. This one mom with her two daughters had clearly never been before - towel clutching - and didn’t even realize they had to prewash until they saw the signs. At one point, this mom whips out her phone and starts taking pics of her daughters submerged in the the water! Luckily another woman told her it wasn’t allowed. They spent like 5 minutes in the water before leaving…

The condition of the slopes

The indoor section was pretty sulfury, the stones covered in yellow. The outdoor part was okay. I think Gunma has spoiled me with its amazing onsens. I got to talking with this lady, F, and her partner afterward. They were such a cool couple from Perth and really interesting. We ended up exchanging info to meet up for dinner later. I then headed off to a cafe to hang out. Gah, such expensive coffee. We had dinner at a hot pot place. It was so much food! I couldn’t finish the end bit when they add noodles to use up the extra broth. Very yummy with all the seafood in it. We hung out for awhile chatting, before I caught the bus back to Kutchan and walked back to my airbnb.