Japan Rising

Ever considered Japan over Thredbo or Mt Hotham for your next snow-journ?  Club Med Sahoro awaits you. 

Japan Club Med Skiing. Images courtesy Club Med.

In 1974, Harvard University philosopher Robert Nozick asked the world a question: if a wondrous special machine existed which could trick people into believing they were living what they considered their perfect life, with no worries or problems to contend with, would human beings choose to be hooked up? Some said most people would, but other critical thinkers disagreed, claiming a fair whack of the world’s population believes that life without challenge is no life at all. (To get to the rainbow, you need to put up with the rain, that kind of stuff). The debate continues to this day.Though not quite invited to ride Nozick’s fanciful machine, this magazine nonetheless feels more than qualified to weigh in on the argument, having been offered the next best thing to – or perhaps an example of – the perfect life.

Upon Club Med’s invitation for us to road test their ski resort at Sahoro, Hokkaido, Japan, we’re off. You remember Club Med – its glitzy resorts worldwide used to be the playgrounds of the wannabe rich and famous. It’s their 60th birthday this year; the company beginning life as huts on a beach somewhere better than where you live, with its first ski resort making people happy in Switzerland from 1956. There were once 120 Club Meds scattered around the globe – only 80 remain, in locations like Mauritius, but that number’s climbing again.

These days, a whopping 65 percent of Club Med’s clientele is families, and just a fifth of its business results from couples wanting to chil-lax in some of the world’s most exotic locations.

Club Med’s all-inclusive price ethos is attractive to Gen Xers who like their phone bills capped and downloads at no extra cost. This all-inclusive policy literally includes everything: return flights and transfers, sport and leisure activities like table tennis and archery, fun stuff for the kids and all the food and alcohol guests need.

World-famous top-quality powder snow and almost too many mountains to chose from puts Hokkaido up there with the most popular skiing and snowboarding locations in Japan. There are more than 500 ski resorts to choose from across the country, creating one hotbed of competition, which explains why it’s cheaper for Aussies to ski in the land of the rising sun than North America, Europe ... or Australia.

Nirvana Central Images: Courtesy of Club Med.

Nirvana central, aka Club Med Sahoro, is a ski-in, ski-out resort; skiers are housed so close to the slopes they can carve a braking turn at the end of their run and almost be able to spray powder across the exterior glass walls of the resort’s dining area. There are 17 trails on offer – nine for beginners, three for intermediate-level skiers and five for the show-offs.

For lucky holidayers rocking up at Club Med Sahoro who find themselves remembering they’re about as nimble on a pair of skis as they are trying to pick a marble up with chopsticks, help isn’t far away. Buzzing around the resort are GOs or “Gentle Organisers”. They’re a hearty army of youthful, athletic locals, Aussies, Yanks, Saffers, etc, who are at your service. These friendly footsoldier/ski instructors are on the lookout for those who can’t ski, or, away

from the snow, mums and dads and sons and daughters who need directions while surveying the resort’s fun-filled layout. In their downtime, the GOs will even come and sit beside diners and enjoy a feed in the restaurant if leisure-seekers look likethey need the company.

Inside Sport arrives just in the nick of time for the opening of the resort’s speciality restaurant called Mina Mina, which in local Ainu tongue means “happy smile” – exactly what guests walk out with, besides a full belly. Such a sitting like the Mina Mina experience has diners feeling like they’ve just swallowed a pony, but what they’ve actually devoured is delicious French-style cuisine made from the freshest Hokkaido ingredients.