Niseko Ski Lodge - Higashiyama

I came here on a solo trip as the last leg of a 17 day trip in Hokkaido. Starting with the lodge itself, the building is a cute standard lodge with 3 floors, the base floor has rooms, the ski equipment room, 2 shower rooms, and laundry machine. The main floor has the front desk, water closets, a dining room, staff kitchen and a wood burning stove. The top floor has more rooms and common areas with couches. There is a breakfast buffet for 1800 yen that you can add on to your stay which I recommend because it is a nice hearty western breakfast- great before the slopes and the lodge is quite far from restaurants without a car. While I was there, breakfast consisted of sausages, bacon, eggs, shimeji mushrooms, hot cakes, bread, muffins, various cereals and yogurt. If you are concerned about speaking Japanese, almost all the staff were international and spoke English. The staff were super friendly and all did different things for the lodge. Some cooked breakfast, built the fire, shoveled snow, taught snowboarding, tidied the lodge, etc. A team of jack of all trades, impressive group of friendly people. My last day there, I wanted to get some refresher courses on snowboarding. It was last minute but the staff was super accommodating on trying to help find what I needed. One staffer, Joel called around to see who was available, and Carmen, one of the instructors agreed to take me, even though it was her day off. I have not been on a snowboard since before the pandemic so I was really rusty. I told Carmen everything I was struggling with and she was understanding on what I needed help with. I did go early season, so there wasn't a lot of snow but Carmen took me to Annupuri and we ended up snowboarding almost the entire day. She gave me pointers on what I was doing, and took videos of me so I can review them for further study. I was pretty shaky on the board initially, but by the end of the day, I was able to turn better and had less wipe outs. Carmen also took me back to drop off my rentals and took me back to the lodge. The lodge also has great vibes, largely in part to the staff. I enjoyed talking to the people worked there, but also enjoyed talking to the guests I met there from Singapore and Australia. The location of the lodge is a little far off from the slopes and does require taking the shuttle buses which stop at 5pm. The lodge is also in a fairly remote location, so meal planning is a must. There is a dairy farm that is a 9 minute walk away with a wonderful pizza shop, western restaurant, bakery/ ice cream shop, and a chocolate shop. All of these close around 5:30pm, and keep in mind, the buses stop running at 5pm. There are food delivery and pick-up offerings though- as in, you call the restaurant to come pick you up to dine at their restaurant. So besides lack of food options, this place was a fun place to stay at.