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From the Editors
First snow reached Sapporo on October 28, and Niseko’s resorts plan to open on November 28. Between those dates, there’s a dairy farm to visit. At Niseko Takahashi Farm, milk becomes soft serve, pizza cheese and bean-to-bar chocolate, and lunch looks out at Mt. Yotei. Also this issue: Snow Watch, with the price of heating, and an update on Tokachidake, now at Level 2. The trivia question waits in the middle of the issue, about what Niseko means.
At the Niseko Takahashi Farm with Ezo Fuji hiding in the background
People of Hokkaido
Lunch, Soft Serve and Chocolate, All From One Niseko Farm
Niseko is best known for powder snow, but its farms make a good autumn stop. Niseko Takahashi Farm sits at the foot of Mt. Yotei. We visited last autumn, and in one stop we had lunch, dessert and chocolate, all made from what the farm and the land around it produce.
The milk comes first
The farm's milk workshop, called Milk Kobo, was incorporated in 1996. Everything it sells starts with milk from the farm's own cows, which are on the lot next door. The farm is best known for its drinking yogurt, but we went for the soft serve and a chou cream.
The soft serve ice cream we had was a milk flavor, which the farm describes as fresh and light, and it's about 380 yen on the farm's menu. The choux cream is a cream puff filled when you order, about 270 yen. Most ice cream places have a basic vanilla flavor, but in Hokkaido when you have fresh dairy there is a delicious milk option. Fresh-made cream puffs are also a delicious snack to try, and these portions were pretty generous.
Lunch at PRATIVO
PRATIVO is the farm's restaurant, and every seat looks out at Mt. Yotei. The cooking leans on vegetables from the mountain's foothills and the farm's milk, according to the farm. Lunch is a set menu: an A set with a drink bar, or a B set with a drink bar and dessert, plus side dishes. The menu changes with the season, so check the restaurant's website for what's on now. We had a perfect view of Ezo Fuji in the background, with a little cloud coverage on top, but still a perfect autumn view to go along with all of the fresh, great food we had for lunch.
Dinner is reservation-only, in two seatings at 18:00 or 19:00, and the restaurant is closed for dinner Monday through Wednesday. Winter dinner reservations opened on October 24.
Pizza from the farm's own cheese
There's also Mandriano, a pizza shop attached to the farm's cheese factory. The fresh cheese on each pizza is made from the farm's own milk. The farm's map page lists it as closed on Wednesdays.
Chocolate to take home
CACAO CROWN, the farm's bean-to-bar chocolate maker, has made chocolate in Niseko since 2021. It roasts cacao beans from around the world in-house, grinds them with stone for days, and blends in the farm's milk. Its website says the owner, Takahashi Mamoru, learned about bean-to-bar by chance at a trade show and made it a main line. The farm's philosophy, as the site tells it, is that good soil makes good grass, and good grass makes good cows.
We got the Ghana 55% as a gift for Satomi’s parents back in Fukui and they loved it. This kind is a blend of 55% Ghana chocolate and 45% milk from their farm. It was a perfect blend of milk chocolate.
Going
Where: 888-1 Soga, Niseko Town. It's about a 40-minute walk from Niseko Station, so most visitors drive. If you drive, enter by the Milk Kobo's second parking lot. If your GPS can't find the restaurant, search the Milk Kobo's number, 0136-44-3734.
Milk Kobo and CACAO CROWN: 9:30 to 18:00, with shorter winter hours (the Milk Kobo's are 10:00 to 17:30). Phone: 0136-44-3734.
PRATIVO: lunch 11:00 to 15:00 (last order) and open daily, then dinner at 18:00 or 19:00, closed for dinner Mon, Tue, Wed. Phone: 0136-55-8852. It's closed November 16 to 20 for maintenance, for lunch and dinner.
On the road: the Milk Kobo also runs a shop at the Niseko View Plaza roadside station, selling soft serve and cheese tarts.
Language: the restaurant's website is mostly in Japanese, and a browser translation tool works. CACAO CROWN has an English site.
🎯 HOKKAIDO TRIVIA
Niseko comes from an Ainu name. What does it describe?
A) A sheer cliff with a river below
B) Deep powder snow
C) A hot spring valley
D) A mountain that looks like a bear
Keep reading. The answer’s waiting for you at the bottom of this issue.
Snow Watch: First Flakes, Ski Dates and the Price of Heat
Sapporo saw its first snow of the season on October 28, right on the normal date and five days later than last year's October 23. Asahikawa and Kutchan, next to Niseko, got theirs on October 22, and the summit of Asahidake was already snow-covered on October 2.
First snow only means a few flakes. The numbers that matter come next: the first day with 1 centimeter on the ground (normally November 12) and the start of permanent snow cover (normally December 6). Sapporo averages 479 centimeters of snow a season.
Did the snow bugs get it right?
Folk wisdom says the yukimushi give notice. They're aphids covered in white wax that fly in swarms in autumn, and a Hokkaido extension office says snow usually follows two to four weeks after they start flying. People in Sapporo began posting sightings around September 25, though only a handful, and first snow came 33 days later. That's a little slow, but close.
Ski season dates
Most Niseko resorts plan to open on November 28, along with Furano, Kiroro and Rusutsu. Sapporo Kokusai is planned for November 20 and Sapporo Teine for November 21, and Tomamu follows on December 1. All of it depends on snow, and the outlook leans milder. Last season, Rusutsu, the Niseko area and Kiroro couldn't open on their planned dates for lack of snow. At Grand Hirafu, the Ace gondola and the summit restaurant NEST813 are scheduled to open on November 28 regardless of snow.
The price of heat
Heating is the other winter number. Co-op Sapporo's home-delivery kerosene rose to 159 yen a liter on October 1, a record and 35 yen more than in March, as the prolonged Iran situation pushed crude prices up. The co-op had warned it could approach 190 yen by year-end. Then it skipped a planned November increase, after its wholesale cost fell more than 10 percent from about October 23, helped by government supply measures.
Dates to watch
November 12: normal date for the first 1 cm of snow on the ground
November 20 and 21: Sapporo Kokusai and Teine planned openings
November 28: Niseko-area resorts planned opening
December 6: normal start of permanent snow cover
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Tokachidake Drops to Level 2, With Limits
In our September 22nd issue, we reported that Tokachidake had reached Level 3 for the first time. On October 16 at 10:00, the Japan Meteorological Agency lowered the warning to Level 2, crater-area restrictions.
The agency's reasons: no large volcanic earthquakes have occurred since the level was raised on September 12, seismic activity is trending down, and no eruption has been observed since a very small one on August 6.
The mountain is still active, though. Heat activity remains high, sulfur dioxide emissions are still elevated, and ground measurements still show deep expansion. The agency says an eruption could still affect the area within about 1.5 kilometers of the crater, so large ejected rocks remain a danger there, and ash or small stones can drift downwind.
On the ground, Kamifurano lifted the evacuation order for the Fukiage Onsen district, about 3 kilometers from the crater, and the elderly-evacuation advisory for the Tokachidake Onsen district. Road restrictions near Bogakudai ended after about a month, and the tourism industry reported relief. Shirogane-so, the lodge at Fukiage Onsen, planned to reopen on November 1. A local guide citing official announcements says the Tokachidake Skyline entered its winter closure on October 19.
See you out there. · また木曜日に。
🎯 Trivia answer:
A) A sheer cliff with a river below
Niseko is short for the Ainu name of the Niseko-anbetsu River, usually glossed as “the river facing a sheer cliff.” The Niseko Resort Tourism Association says the name never settled into kanji, so it’s written in katakana. Nupuri, as in Niseko Annupuri, means mountain, so the resort’s main peak is “the mountain with the cliff and river.” The snow still counts, though: all five towns in the Niseko area are designated special heavy-snow zones.