HAKUBA 2019

MUST SEE EAT DO HITLIST

by CHEEKY WOMBAT 29 November 2020

Check out our MUST SEE EAT DO HITLIST video above for the highlights of our trip abroad in February 2019 to the classic Japanese ski village, Hakuba!

SUMMARY

First Impression

In early 2019, we flew to Japan for a 2-week holiday with a group of friends. We spent a week skiing in Hakuba followed by a week visiting Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Our Hakuba ski trip was by far the best snowsport holiday we’ve ever had! Located about a 4.5h drive northwest of Tokyo, Hakuba embodies the classic Japanese ski village experience and attracts tourists from all over the world during ski season to hit the slopes at the six resorts that are within driving distance of Hakuba. Built on a culture of snowsports and tourism, Hakuba’s atmosphere is energised with an unparalleled sense of excitement and adventure.

Accommodation

As far as ski hostels go, The Lab (@thelabhakuba) was good value and located in an ideal spot. The Lab served as a convenient base of operations for our party of four from which we could easily catch shuttle buses to ski shops and resorts. The Lab also has a shuttle service that operates between the train station, hostel, ski equipment store and nearby ski resorts. It was also within 10 minutes walking distance of Hakuba’s main street, Echoland, which meant that we could walk to and from local restaurants, shops and bars without having to catch a taxi. The Lab is even within walking distance of Happo-One (one of the ski mountains)!

The Lab was staffed mainly by young Australians with a penchant for snowsports and everyone we met were friendly, respectful and excited to be there. We always felt safe and never had any issues with belongings being nicked. On a couple of occasions we had breakfast or played cards with others staying at the hostel and got to know a few of them.

The facilities and level of service were well-suited to resilient adventurers enjoying their ski trip on a budget. There was plenty of space and lockers in the dedicated room for people to store and dry their ski gear. The indoor heating was extremely welcoming and there was plenty of space in the common areas to spread out at breakfast or in the evening. While it was very basic fare, the included hot breakfast each morning was extremely convenient and meant that we could fill up before a full day of skiing. They also served dinner at a reasonable cost, but we always ventured out to other spots in Hakuba for dinner and drinks. The communal bathrooms and shower blocks were not the most pleasant, but being a budget ski hostel we understood that this came with the territory.

We were lucky that we got a six-person room to ourselves. It would have been extremely crowded with another two people and it was nice not having to sleep in the same room with strangers. We had just enough space in our room to store our luggage and dry our clothes after a big day hitting the slopes (some of us weren’t the best skiers and fell over lots). We ended up sleeping across three bunk beds.

Overall, The Lab was an endearing, budget hostel with fun people who had come to enjoy the Hakuba ski season.

Skiing & snowboarding

The snow was absolutely amazing in Hakuba! It was so soft and fluffy, and we had pretty decent snow with fresh fall for a couple of days while we were there. Japan’s snow is definitely the best snow I’ve ever experienced! 

There are 6 main ski fields near Hakuba: Iwatake, Happo-One, Goryu, Norikura Cortina, Sanosaka and Tsugaike. We made it to Happo-One, Tsugaike and Iwatake over the 5 days we were in Hakuba. We didn’t have a favourite ski field - all of them were great in their own way! We hired gear from Rhythm which gave us the flexibility of changing between skis and a snowboard when we wanted. 

One day after a huge morning of skiing, we decided to have a quick lunch stop at a mountainside lodge that we discovered near one of the chairlift stations. Ruth ordered pasta (of course) and I ordered a salad (of course). We also ordered a couple of small spiced mulled wines with cinnamon sticks and sat at a bench looking out across the ski slopes and falling snow. It was a memorable moment that has stuck with us.

Windy Car Rental 

We pre-booked a small 4-person car (K-class) from Windy Car Rental for a day to visit some places that were a couple hours’ drive outside of Hakuba. It was easy to book online and the pick-up/drop-off process was hasslefree! Costing around A$200 per day, the hire car was affordable and gave us flexibility for our day trips.

MUST SEE: Jigokudani Monkey Park

The Jigokudani Monkey Park (@jigokudaniyaenkoen) is our MUST SEE pick for Hakuba. This place is about a 2h drive from Hakuba but it’s well worth the trip! We parked in a snow-covered car park at the base of the park and walked along a windy alpine trail for 15 minutes or so. During our walk we also saw this weird animal hanging out in the snow that looked like a tapir (although these are not found in Japan!)

We arrived at the gift shop where we bought our tickets to the monkey park. Our patience was rewarded with views of endless snow monkeys hanging out in the snow and around some hot springs. There were a few monkeys relaxing in the steaming hot spring itself and they were not keen on coming out into the cold anytime soon! There actually weren’t that many monkeys in the hot springs, potentially because most of them knew how cold they would be when they got out!

You can’t jump in the hot springs with the monkeys, but the monkeys are quite used to human observers, so you can get pretty close and take photos of the monkeys, many of whom I’m certain have had more photos taken of them than most celebrities!

If you like animals, you’ll love this place. We had a fantastic time watching these snow monkeys frolicking, grooming and prancing about in the snow and springs. The gift shop was also pretty neat and had an excessive amount of monkey-themed paraphernalia.

MUST DO: Suntory Hakushu Distillery

The Suntory Hakushu Distillery Tour is our MUST DO pick for Hakuba. This place is also about a 2h drive from Hakuba but an absolute must-do for whisky lovers. Everyone in our party of 4 except Ruth (designated driver) was given green lanyards and allowed to drink as much whisky as we wanted. Instead, Ruth got a pink lanyard and was watched like a hawk by the staff to make sure that she only drank water and juice!

The 2h guided tour was super cool! We were taken through the whisky making process including barrel-making, distillation and aging. Staff hand out little handheld devices with pre-recorded tour guide comments in a range of languages including English.

The guided tour ended with a class on how to taste 4 different types of whiskeys and how to mix your own whisky highball cocktail (whisky and soda cocktail popularised in Japan). Ruth was taught how to taste 4 different glasses of water (not that she needed teaching) and make a mocktail!

One of our friends was conned by Hakuba locals into buying a canned whisky highball from a vending machine… long story short, he’s now discovered his least favourite beverage in the entire world! Whisky and soda (especially from a vending machine) is definitely an acquired taste. 

MUST EAT: Ramen Gyoza Beer

Ramen Gyoza Beer is our MUST EAT pick for Hakuba. We gave up trying to pronounce the actual name of the restaurant, but they have a sign out the front that says RAMEN GYOZA BEER for the benefit of tourists. To this day, we haven’t had a better traditional ramen experience. The restaurant is like an old traditional wooden lodge and we sat on a couple of bar stools enjoying our steaming bowls of ramen while looking out at falling snow. We were feeling a little ill from the “Hakuba Flu” (a mild flu that lasts a while), but this ramen was so good it actually seemed to rejuvenate us!

They’re super popular during ski season and fill up really quickly, so make sure to book ahead. You’ll know it when you see it, around lunch and dinner you can see a queue of hungry tourists snaking out the door and around the corner!

Hakuba nightlife

Hakuba is a reasonably small town, so our ambitious squad was able to traverse the entire town in a single night in search of dinner and drinks. Our first stop was Yamgami Shokudou, a restaurant infamous for their generously-sized shareplates of 30 dumplings. We ordered 2 plates between the 4 of us, meaning that on average we had 15 dumplings each! This was one of the best-value (and delicious!) group dining experiences we enjoyed while in Hakuba.

Wanting to explore further afield than the main street, we walked in the general direction of what we had heard was one of the only bars in town with a pool table. It was a decent walk, maybe about 20 minutes, which included a brief stopover at an igloo that someone had created beside the road. After checking for occupants, we jumped in for a quick breather and some snaps before cracking onward.

The pool bar (B-Line) we discovered was warm, retro and intimate. The bar owner was extremely friendly and we had a good chat about the history of the bar and Hakuba. We played a few games of pool and blamed our poor performance on alcohol and cold weather! Their website looks pretty dodgy but the bar vibes are spot on!

Our final stop for the night was what we thought was just a beer pong bar but also doubled as a kebab bar called Samurai Kebab. You can buy a cocktail “tower” that you use to fill up your red cups on either side of a table tennis table then take turns tossing a ping pong ball into each other's cups. The winning team gets bragging rights while the losing team gets intoxicated very quickly (some would say it’s a win-win!) They also had proper table tennis tables if you wanted to practice your skills!

For a small town covered in snow without a lot of non-ski related activities, we had a surprisingly action-packed fun night. It just goes to show that when you travel with the right people (or go to a place with a great culture and fun people), even an unplanned excursion can turn into an adventure that becomes a highlight of your trip.

Reflection

Our Hakuba ski trip was an incredible experience. While the skiing was obviously amazing, we also got to do lots of other things in and around Hakuba that were super fun and memorable. We will definitely be returning to Japan, perhaps to visit some other spots that we didn’t have the chance to visit last time.