06-05-2025
Insiders' guide to the summer - and winter - attractions of ski hub Niseko
Niseko, a once sleepy farming area in southwest
Hokkaido , has gone through a series of booms and busts over the years. For now, in what is arguably Asia's premier ski destination, it is all boom.
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Millions of visitors from across the globe come to this part of Japan mainly for the winters at
Niseko United – the term used for the linked ski areas above the villages of
Niseko , Hirafu, Hanazono and Annupuri – and some of the driest, fluffiest, most consistent powder on offer anywhere. But it's not all luxurious ski-in ski-out hotels, private-onsen stocked chalets in the woods and world-class snow.
The summers also offer a lot, as Kristian Lund, the managing editor of luxury bible Powderlife; Cezar Constantin, who owns the Niseko Pizza restaurant; and Henry Hockley, owner of ski and snowboard school Mountain Memories in nearby Rusutsu, know all too well.
'It's all about lifestyle,' says Constantin, a Romanian who has called Japan home for 24 years, including the past 18 in Niseko. 'And making the most of every season.'
What to do in the summer
Visitors can swim in Lake Hangetsu in Niseko in summer, and walk on it's frozen surface in snowshoes in the winter. Photo: Niseko Tourism
'Everyone says they came for the winters but stayed for the summer, and that's me as well,' says Lund, an Australian who grew up in Japan as the son of a diplomat and has lived in Niseko for 19 years. 'It's just a beautiful green, natural place to be.'
