It appeared the previous owners did a very good job of making things look nice…from the outside. The better we looked, the more we discovered neglected maintenance. Instead of solving problems and attacking the cause of it, they’ve been hiding problems by covering it up. A few examples:

To cover up the moist problems of some of the walls in the downstairs toilet they screwed thin plywood against it with wallpaper on top. The plywood got fully saturated with moist and the wallpaper started to peel off. To solve this, they patched the wall with plastic sheeting. Nothing to see!

Instead of replacing the carpet on the downstairs floor, they just put another carpet on top…and another one…and another one…

When we first viewed the lodge, the owner told us they hadn’t been running the lodge for 3, maybe 4 years. When we started talking to the neighbours, they carefully mentioned it was more likely to be 10 …..Surprise!! During those years they took a smaller boiler that catered just for the couple that still lived there. Of course, they just left the old boiler in the boiler room. Way too much hassle to get that thing out!

Another fun little fact the neighbours told us is, they barely saw a window open. Which makes us suspect that to save energy, ventilation as well as heating was probably only done in their own residential area. One of the causes, we think, that the outside walls on the downstairs floor suffered from moist problems, e.g. condensation on concrete walls and exposed water pipes, and groundwater pushing through the outside walls. Apparently, this is a common problem in buildings built in this area from around the same period. 

During this period (1970’s/’80s) the economy of Japan was booming. Ski resorts were built all over Japan and the ski industry skyrocketed in popularity and so did ski accommodation. A remarkable fact, and a result from that period: 

Japan comes second in the world when counting ski resorts with more than 4 lifts.

This figure originates from the International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism, 2019.

It was obvious that, like many other lodge owners in this region, the previous owners of April Wine were hit by the significant economic downturn that hit Japan during the early ’90s. During this period, real estate was affected hard and many ski resorts had difficulties maintaining their huge facilities. Lodge owners simply didn’t have enough business to keep their facilities running neither did they have the funds to maintain the building. As a result, many of them started gambling, drinking and smoking away their sorrows (the poor guy that owned our lodge was suffering from stage 4 lung cancer). All-in-all, quite a sad story and we see it as our duty to bring back the spirit into their lifework. We basically had to STOP WHINING and start demolishing!

Slowly but surely our plan of attack for the first winter became clear:

• Fully rip out and renovate the downstairs floor with dining room, lounge, playroom and kitchen.
• Update the guest rooms on the first floor and have 7 rooms operating.
• Use the four rooms on the top floor for staff residency.

Below floor plans show how the lodge will become after our renovations this year.

The most radical changes will take place on the downstairs floor. A few major tasks:

• Ripping out all the carpets, floorboards and floor joys.
• Replace all water piping and move them under the new floor instead of over the ceiling.
• Reinsulate all outside walls.
• Removing a few walls to open up the entire space and create an open playroom. 
• Install a new heating system. 
• Add a boiler for sufficient hot water system. 

The video below shows the situation of the ground floor after most of the demolition was done.

We hope you will still book with us after having watched this;). We promise it will become nicer then it was!!

Akakura Kanko Resort

This week, our activity, as well as our food-related topic, take place at the same location: Akakura Kanko Resort. A hotel, beautifully situated on the middle of the main slope of Akakura Kanko Ski Resort. It has a terrace with amazing views, an in house bakery, good food and one of the most beautiful onsens in the area. Although the onsen is only accessible for guests, they often have a good package deal that combines lunch and an onsen visit. A good suggestion for a lazy afternoon, after a morning of riding powder.

Nano Yoga

Our good friend Nanaco, who provides Yoga lessons for skiers and snowboarders in winter, keeps running her classes in summer too. She always manages to select great locations with awesome mountain views.

The terrace of Kanko Hotel is one of them. Mostly on Sunday mornings, you will be able to enjoy her class here, as well as the great views from the Kanko terrace. For us, this was a great way to recover our bodies during the heavy demolition job.

Myoko Wine Festival

Another activity to take our mind off the renovations was the Myoko Wine Festival, where you can taste local and international wines. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Japanese festival if there were food stalls included as well.

Next to a relaxing purpose, we were there to decide on which wines to serve in the lodge. Curious about the ones we picked? Come and join dinner at our lodge and you will find out!

Thanks for making it till the end! Leave your comments or questions below! In the next blog post we will write about one of the least satisfying but oh so important preparation jobs: levelling floors and prepping walls.

The post #2 Demolition appeared first on Japan Snowsports.

Welcome to our blog and thanks for taking the time to read our first post! The first post of a series where we take you through our adventure of purchasing a ski lodge and starting a company in Japan. For the ones who haven’t met us somewhere in the snow yet: who are we?

Nice to meet you! We are Annemiek (Annie) and Merijn (Dutchie), a couple from The Netherlands. Regardless of the flat character of our home country, together we have 19 years of experience teaching skiing and snowboarding.

While following the snow, Annie works remotely as a ‘digital snowmad’, developing e-learning courses for companies all over the world. Dutchie has been teaching in lots of different outdoor sports since 2000 and passionate about teaching. He is always searching for new ways to make your turns feel better. His off snow career is located in the kitchen working as a chef for several restaurants in Amsterdam. Read more at the ‘About us’ page.

After having ‘lived the live’ in the ski industry all around the world, we had reached that age that you feel you have to decide what to do with your grown-up life. Since the snow is our happy place, it was clear that we wanted to stay in the industry. To be able to survive in the ski industry for longer than 1 gap year you have a few options:

1. You are good enough to become a trainer/examiner for the ski association.
2. You have to start your own business.

It was obvious for us we had to go for the second option. Another clear fact was that Japan was part of the long term plan. Japan Snowsports was born!

Part of the dream was to have our own place in Japan. Especially, since purchasing real estate in Japan was a better shot for us than buying a house in Amsterdam (yes, it’s ridiculously affordable but don’t spread the word please). The place would be a place to live in for ourselves, big enough to host friends and family visiting, and maybe some of our own customers. Wait a minute, what went wrong there? We fell in love with a lodge…

Sooner than expected an opportunity came up. It wasn’t just a house though but a lodge, with 11 rooms, in Madarao ski resort. We didn’t particularly focus on Madarao however when we started looking into the location we realized it is ideally located, centred in between the resorts where we like to take our customers. On top of that, the walking distance to the slopes of Madarao ski resort was a big plus. We decided to do an offer. Meanwhile, we set up a crowdfunding initiative amongst close friends and family. This went better as expected (for which we are incredibly thankful!!!) and before we realised we gathered enough to be able to buy the lodge! After having seen it in real life, the decision was easy. LET’S DO IT.

On the 20^th of June 2019, the previous owner handed us the key and we could enter our new home in Japan. The adventure began! Although, and most probably because we are coming to Japan for several years now, we knew this journey was going to become a challenging one for sure. Starting up a company and renovating a lodge in a country where you don’t speak the language, and where running from desk to desk to authorize some paperwork still provides many people full-time jobs. This is the journey we would like to take you on during these blog posts. Next to writing about the progress of the renovations, we will add in other information, like outdoor activities, culture and food we discovered in our little free time during our first summer here in Japan.

Hiking Madarao Peak

We have found out summer in Japan can be wet, hot and humid. Especially June and July. And then out of nothing, when August hits, it turns hot and dry. This is also when the Japanese schools have their holiday (Obon), the time of festivals (Matsuri) and the time to enjoy the outdoors.

Having the mountains in our back yard we had to enjoy those few sunny days in July. You can climb Madarao Peak from different angles. It’s an easy short hike and your effort gets well rewarded with awesome views over Lake Nojiriko.

El Bosco, Nojiriko

This week we highlight Hotel Restaurant El Bosco in Nojiriko. Surrounded by the forest and located right on the lakeside of lake Nojiri this hotel is a peaceful getaway from the city. The big windows all over the building allow you to fully absorb the beauty of the nature around it. The kitchen of the restaurant is lead by a Japanese chef who serves good quality French-style cuisine food, with a touch of Japan by using local seasonal ingredients. A perfect location to celebrate Annie’s birthday!

During the coming months while we are waiting for the snow to fall we will keep you updated of the progress on a regular base. The next post will be about: Demolition. We would love to hear a word from you in the comments below. Do you have a question about the renovation, the lodge, the snowsports school, or anything else? Post a comment, send us an e-mail or contact us via one of our social media channels.

The post #1 The purchase appeared first on Japan Snowsports.