25/08/2026
Everyone knows Niseko in winter. Rather fewer know it’s where Japanese people go to escape their own summer.
Tokyo in August sits around 35 degrees and something close to full humidity. Niseko is low twenties, dry, and green in a way the photographs never quite manage.
Gan went in July — rafting the Shiribetsu, Kotobuki Onsen where the water comes off Yotei, and a mountain that in winter would have a queue on it. The rest of his list is on WanderLuxe. We’d start with the onsen.