If there is one place on earth to snowboard or ski, it’ll have to be Japan. I doubt there will be anywhere else on earth with that level of service and courtesy. I first tried snowboarding at Mt Buller in Victora, Australia. Not because it is any good but just because that is the closest snowboard/ski resort to where I am located. Being an amateur, I immediately fell getting off from the chairlift and instead of assisting amateurs like me by slowing or stopping the chairlifts to enable me to move away safely, all I heard from the female attendant was “get out of the way”. If I knew how to get out of there with my board strapped on one feet, I most probably would not have fell. The chairlifts which wasn’t stopped continue its way, hitting me rather hard on the head from behind. I managed to drag myself to the side to avoid another coming chairlift. Without any assistance at all, I would probably have been sent to the hospital with head injuries if i didn’t. Snowboarding or skiing in Australia is nothing but expensive and crap. Visitors spend their hard-earned money which pays the staff wages and yet the staff thinks they are doing the visitors a favour. Ever since that experience, I told myself never to snowboard in Australia again. If I can hand out flyers saying ‘Snowboarding and skiing in Australia sucks. Do not go’, I would. Anyone who flies all the way here for the snow is either out of their mind or has been living under a rock.
In Japan, Niseko to be exact, there are usually two attendants at the lifts. One in the control booth and the other tidying the snow in the area. If they notice that you are an amateur, they tend to give you a hand or slow the lift down. The attendants would try to hold my arm as I was getting on and off the lift, to help me gain my balance. The few times that I fell as soon as I was getting off the chairlift, the lift was stopped for me. And if I wasn’t getting up and away immediately, the attendant would come out from the control booth asking “Daijoubu desu ka” checking that I was alright. I also find that if you indicate ‘slow down’ with a hand signal to them when you are close to alighting the chairlift, they tend to slow it down for you. This way, everyone is able to learn how to get on and off the chairlift. There is nothing more you can ask for, snowboarding in Japan.
