1/2 Day Sawanobori Adventure in the Suzuka Mountains

I have snowboarded at a lot of different resorts across the world and Japan has some of the best snow that I have ever ridden. There is so much of it! I also really enjoy the Japanese culture and food. The whole Japan snow experience is AMAZING. I have gone there twice before to Niseko, so this time I wanted to try something different. I loved visiting Northern Hokkaido and was glad that Naoki could bring us to local restaurants and also show us where to go for backcountry! His knowledge is amazing. I don't think we would have had such an authentic experience without him. We did a 4 day backcountry powder tour in February, 2017 and it didn’t snow very much the first few days but with Naoki's expertise, he was able to take us to locations where we found POWDER! ASAHIDAKE and SAPPORO KOKUSAI were AMAZING! Those 2 were my favorite by far, but i loved all 4 days. They were all different which I liked. Naoki also brought us to onsens after, which we all enjoyed very much! Naoki was THE BEST guide EVER! We laughed a lot together. He taught us Japanese and we taught him English. He was super knowledgeable about every single mountain we went to and could read the terrain so well. He could even tell us which areas to avoid and which sides had better snow. I always felt super safe under his supervision. The added surprise was Naoki taking us to eat local Japanese restaurants. We ate ORGANS for the first time. It was so fun and such a great experience. WE LOVE NAOKI! We want to do another guided tour in Japan with him. We consider him a friend now. Also he took pictures of us which we did not expect and they turned out to be AWESOME! I would love to go on a guided tour to some steeper areas like Hakuba. Maybe in 2 years we will meet Naoki again. He was super knowledgeable, fun, and safe! He is also a really good snowboarder. Our of 5, I would rate him a 6!!! =)