Hokkaido Storm Chaser Logistics

This page is dedicated to where to meet, what flights to book, what to bring, how to rent gear, and details about money on the Hokkaido Storm Chaser.

• Getting There
• Getting Back
• Pro Tips
• Renting Gear
• Money

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Getting There

There are two options to meet the group:

1. Meet at the Asahikawa AKJ airport at 1:30pm or
2. Meet in the lobby of the La Vista Furano Hotel, at 6:15pm ready to go to dinner. La Vista Hotel can be accessed on your own or by the Resort Liner Bus with service from CTS airport. If you're meeting at La Vista, be sure to sort out any ski rentals you've arranged before the meet up time!
   

​Option #1: Meeting at AKJ Airport at 1:30pm

This is a picture of the exact meeting point at AKJ

The meeting point in AKJ airport is at the 1st floor arrivals area by entrance 3, as pictured above. If you get there early, there are nice places to hang out on the second floor.

You can see a very simple layout of this small airport here. 

Option #2: Take the Resort Liner bus from CTS to Furano, leaving at 12:20pm. Check in at La Vista on your own and meet in the lobby at 6:15pm

This is what the CTS-Furano bus looks like. Its very comfortable with plenty of room for ski gear

If you're committed to a round-trip flight to Sapporo's CTS Airport, you can hop on the 12:20pm Hokkaido Resort Liner bus which drops you off a 1-minute walk away from the Furano La Vista Hotel at 3:30pm.

This bus gets booked out early so be sure to make your reservations well in advance. The cost of the bus is ¥4,500 and reservations can be made in advance online in English on their website here. The cost of the bus is not included in this trip.

The meeting time is 6:15pm in the lobby of the La Vista Hotel, so be dressed and ready to go to dinner with the group. This bus must be reserved in advance; reserve your ticket here if you haven't already. If you rented skis, its important that you pickup your skis before meeting us for dinner! There will be no time to pick up skis after dinner. Note that the ski rental shop (Rhythm Rentals) is located a 10 minute taxi ride away from the hotel, at the Furano Kitanomine Gondola Base.

Getting Back

This trip ends with a drop off at Sapporo's CTS airport at 5pm on the final day. This means that you should not book any domestic flights that depart before 6pm and should not book any international flights that depart before 6:30pm. 

If flights at those times don't work for you, we recommend getting a hotel inside the airport or in the vicinity of the airport. We will drop you off at a hotel of your choosing within Chitose City, which is 15 minutes from the airport. The best and easiest hotel option is the Air Terminal Hotel which is located inside the CTS airport but it's a bit pricey. Lower cost options with free airport shuttle buses are abundant and start at about ¥5,000 per night.  

Note that we are unable to do drop-off's in Sapporo due to traffic problems. If you would like to get a hotel in Sapporo, you can take the train 30 minutes into town from the CTS Airport Train Station.

Pro Tips

Mailing your luggage

If you're planning on spending a couple days in Tokyo before the trip, you can mail your big, clunky ski bag directly to the La Vista Hills hotel in Furano for only about $30. If you're spending an extra couple days in Japan after the trip, you can mail your ski bag directly from our hotel in Otaru or CTS airport to Tokyo's NRT or HND airports. While it only takes 48 hours for your bag to be sent from the airport to the first hotel, 72 hours are required for mailing your bag the opposite way (from the last hotel to the airport).

For example:

Arrive into Tokyo two days before the trip at 12pm and mail your bag to the La Vista Hills hotel in Furano from the airport. Your baggage should arrive at the hotel two days later. Before mailing your bag, be sure to confirm with the staff that it will be delivered by the night of the trip start date. In Japan, if they promise a delivery time, it'll be there when they say. 

Just like that, if you mail your bag you won't have to lug it around Tokyo, or wherever your travels take you in Japan. It's a big life saver, very reliable and incredibly reasonable. 

​For more information on mailing bags, checkout this great article about how it's done here. 

Discount flights

Two airlines offer special low-cost deals out of Tokyo's HND airport for foreign tourists (an airline version of the Japan Rail Pass). Air-Do offers flight deals from ¥8,800 and ANA offers tourist deals of ¥10,800. In order to take advantage of these deals you must be visiting Japan on a tourist visa.​

Jetstar Japan is also a low cost carrier that flies from Tokyo's NRT airport directly to AKJ airport.

Pocket WiFi or Sim Card

Stay connected to friends and family with a pocket Wi-Fi or Sim Card. Whether you need to check in with work or upload to the Gram, we always recommend Sakura Mobile as our provider of choice.  With this service, order the item in advance then return it with prepaid postage from any post box in the country. Click here for Pocket Wi-Fi and here for Sim cards.

What to bring

Ski Gear

• Ski/Snowboard
• Ski bag/ Snowboard bag 
• Boots, poles
• Shovel, beacon, probe if going off-piste (mandatory for joining guided off-piste tours)
  
• Goggles, gloves, helmet
• Ski jacket, ski pants
  
• Long Johns top and bottom
• Ski socks
• Toe warmers (if you struggle with cold feet these are life changing)
  
• Mid-layer insulation (fleece, etc)

General Gear

• A day pack. Very useful to bring a change of clothes when we stop by a Onsen Hot Springs on our way back from a day of skiing.
• Winter coat. In the ski towns, you can  expect temperatures of -10c  with high humidity
• Pants/trousers, T-shirts
• Insulating fleece-type layers
• Underwear, toiletries, socks, sunglasses
• Call your bank before you leave and make sure they know you're going to be purchasing items in Japan using your debit/credit card abroad
• Money (more on this in adjacent tab)
• Most people overpack for the Storm Chaser and regret bringing too much stuff. Aside from your ski gear, you only need 1-2 pairs of pants, 1-2 shirts, a sweatshirt, and puffy for around town. 

Renting Gear

High quality rental gear is available through our partners at Rhythm Snow Sports.

A 10% discount is extended to all JST guests when reserving through the link provided here. ​​

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When making your reservation, make sure to note the following: 

• Renting skis is your responsibility. JST is simply directing you to the best rental place in town and will not be responsible for the availability of rentals or experience of their staff.
  
• If you're opting to meet the group in front of the La Vista Furano hotel at 6:15pm on day one, you'll need to sort out your rental skis before this meeting time. There will be no time rent skis after meeting the group at 6:15pm for dinner.
• Rent your gear for a duration of 7 days. We only ski 6 days, but since we end in a different location from where we start, one additional day is required to mail the skis back to Rhythm. 
• Your rental skis will need to be returned via post since the start and ending points of this trip are different. Be sure you get a ski bag that fits your skis so that you can mail them back to Rhythm at the end of your trip.
• The cost of mailing rented skis back to Rhythm will be in addition to the rental price. The additional cost is ¥3,000 but subject to change.
• When filling out the rental form, you'll want to select to rent the "Premium Ski or Board Packages" as this is their good quality powder equipment. 
• 10% discount is extended to all JST guests
• You can make your rental reservation at this link here.

If you've signed up for an AKJ airport at 1:30pm and have ski rentals, our guide will drive you to the Rhythm shop. Note that your guide will not be an expert on the rental process at Rhythm and you will need to refer to Rhythm staff for assistance with your ski rental equipment.

Money

The currency in Japan is the Japanese Yen which is denoted by "JPY" or as "¥". 

Credit Cards

While credit cards are now accepted at the majority of establishments in Japan, you should expect most lunch vendors at the ski resorts we visit to only take cash. 

Getting Cash in Japan

As a visitor, there are two main ways of getting cash in Japan: 1) bring your home currency with you and exchange it at the currency exchange window, or 2) use ATM's within Japan to withdraw your funds. All major convenience stores will have ATM's that are compatible with foreign cards as long as your bank allows the transaction.

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Currency exchange window. You can exchange your home currency into JPY after arriving in Japan. This is a very simple option as there is no bank to get in the way and decline your currency conversion. The simplicity has a price though because the exchange window doesn't give you the most advantageous rate; however the airport rate is widely seen as fair.

Withdraw funds from ATM's. You should be able to withdraw funds from any Seven Eleven ATM in Japan. The conversion rate is great but sometimes banks have issues with Japanese ATM's which can cause them to block your transactions. Be sure to check with your bank before coming to see if they have a ATM withdrawal fee or currency conversion fee. If they do, it may be cheaper to just convert cash at a currency exchange window. 

The best idea is to show up in Japan with a few hundred dollars of your own currency, convert it in to JPY, then use ATM's after that. Be sure to call your bank and let them know you'll be making withdrawals from Japanese ATM's so they don't block your account! 

What you can expect to spend

Looking at the What's Included page is a good starting point to get an idea of what you'll need to spend money on. Other then that, the amount of money you spend in Japan largely depends on your preferences. Do you want to eat sushi every day? Are you getting the most expensive sake? Will you be buying lots of souvenirs? 

Below is a cost estimate based on how much is spent daily on each item. Prices are in JPY. Over the 7-day trip, you can expect to spend ¥52,000 on the low end or ¥99,500 on the high end. Keep in mind that results will vary depending on your personal spending.