Niseko, Japan
If you do one thing in Japan, you should visit a 7/11 convenience store. January is the month you should do that.
To the right is yours truly, on the other side of the lens for a change. Big thanks to Eric Sales for this shot along with being the best guide, bus driver, restaurant reservations maker and entertainment provider for our group over the course of the week. This was the first trip I took with a camera and while my own shots left much room for improvement, it was an incredible learning experience with an all time crew of friends which resulted in hundreds of great memories and enough decent photos to spike my motivation for improvement.
Check out a few more shots courtesy of Mister Eric Sales in the gallery immediately below.
It’s often difficult for me to separate photos from memories.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. And I’m honestly not sure if that’s because it’s a good shot or because it’s associated with the memory of how insane the meal was. This ramen shop was in the alley behind our hotel, it had maybe 15 bar seats and was located in what could have been a storage unit. It had no sign, no menu posted, was not listed on yelp or Google and it was easily the best ramen I’ve ever tasted. Here, Mister Walker and Mister Heli sample the goods - which were better than the skiing this day.
Below you’ll find a few more of my shots from this trip in which the memories I associate with the photos are likely much greater than the quality of the images themselves.
Field Notes.
Go to Japan in January they said. Whoever “they” were, were very correct. Japan in January has become a right of passage for every skier. If you’re looking for deep powder snow, there’s perhaps no place on earth more reliable than Niseko, Japan.
If you’re going to make the trip only once, my advice would be to spend the extra money to hire a guide and have him/her help plan the experience. Our guide, Eric Sales, made this trip exponentially better than anything we could have planned on our own. He took us to the best lines, best restaurants and handled the small details which we would never have known about had we done it without his local expertise. Learn More.