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one of the post-Covid world’s most restrictive and regimented
countries. What started as days of delays and destruction, was
now morphing into a seamless pathway of harmonious timing
and faultless luck. As we pressed towards the mountains, even
the charming taxi driver, who met us at 11pm at the railway
station amid the ensuing blizzard, showed that unwavering
smile and feverish offering of assistance that only the Japanese
can emulate.
We dropped our bags full of Jones, Nitro and Season demo
boards, Oakley goggles, helmets and riding packs at our
ryokan, and headed straight to a quintessential smoky late-night
‘locals venue’, to meet the rest of the crew. As a bar by most
standards, with that typical Japanese chic, you retrieve your
tipple-of-choice, then pay at the bar for it to be opened, which
is an absolute stella business regime, especially considering the
size of the venue made any chance for the provision of service
to their clientele about as easy to achieve as Aabhi fitting his
huge 6’4” frame and 167cm Nitro Magnum within their four
person gondolas. Inside the bar, Nick (US) and Grant (Scotland)
were holding court and telling yarns of the last three days of
riding we’d missed. Then there, in the corner, was Steve (U.K.),
our quintessential Pom, and token ‘straight stander’ never sure
‘where he was’ or ‘where he was headed’ and always expecting
someone had it organised, but into everything just the same.
The quaintness of this first snow village, was not lost on the
newer members of our group. Nor, what it must take to carve
a life in this environment with the thin, narrow streets, steep
gradients and the constant trickle of Onsen water lapping at
your snowboard boots. And, what about the yuki? How about
that yuki! The next three days were filled with that constant
English retort from seasoned NZSHRED snow tripper, Robbie,
“Just extra-ordinary!!!”. Danny (Dunedin) was soon remembering
why he’d frequented Japan some 10 years earlier, and equally
asking himself, why he’d taken this long to return.
The terrain variety of this upper mountain proved a brilliant
playing field for the talent and experience across the group.
Lines allowing individuals their necessary measure of trees
(or not), dictated by experience or lactic acid build-up, were
plentiful. However, by day four the itch of frequenting a different
apres environment was requiring more than just a passing
scratch. With a quarry of Asahi Dry and rice triangles, we
negotiated the well-manicured highways and byways to land us
in our next village. It was a destination of greater size, however
still had streets numbering no more than fingers on our hands.
We were again blessed with four ‘local’ resorts and another three
within the region with the furthest being a mere 45 minute drive,
even on a solid snow day.
With group numbers swelling by the day, the Melbourne boys
Hugh and Imran hit the ground running. Shortly after, Ange
(Christchurch) and late trip member Rahul (Sydney) saw 2023
NZSHRED Japow Tour reach 11 crew. Despite the idiosyncrasies
of a manageable dining experience fast becoming more of a ‘fend
for yourself’ objective, the snow fall and quality did not waiver
and there was just metres of it. As the days passed, we ticked
off ski field after ski field. Our 18 days of riding saw us gather a
quarry of 9 different ski areas in three separate snow regions of
Honshu and just one lone day of no snowfall within that.
With snow conditions favourable on a daily basis, there was
abundant opportunity to move the Oakley Flight Deck, Flight
Tracker and Fall Line goggles around the group, as well as to try
their new lens variations of Prizm Sage Gold, Prizm Rose Gold
and Prizm Snow Garnet. With NZSHRED having pre-trip catered
for a number of the group members snowboard requirements,
a quarry of additional powder planks were generously passed
among the team. Of specific mention, were the revamped camber
2024 Jones Mind Expander (156cm), the historically ever-reliable
2024 Nitro Squash (159cm) and the well-received 2024 Season
Nexus (155cm). A further highlight of the demo gear was a set of
the new, revolutionary Nidecker Supermatic quick-entry bindings.
With no end to the yuki falling, our riding days were fast coming
to an end as we arrived at our third and final mountain village.
Differing from the other venues, by way of it being a purpose-built
snow destination, we experienced our largest daily snowfall of
the trip some 50 plus centimetres over the course of our riding
day. After almost three weeks on our boards, and attention now
turning to some lazy days touristing in the effervescent metropolis
of Tokyo, we bulleted south by way of one of Japan’s most
famous engineering achievements, the shinkansen.
Stomachs filled of outstanding cuisine, broad smiles from
rekindled snow interactions and bodies sufficiently tired and
worn out, each group member returned home, satisfied with
the playtime and fuelling a desire to look towards that next yuki
chapter – So, to the 2024 NZSHRED Japow Tour.
NZ SHRED
www.nzshred.co.nz