NISEKO (Japan) - American skiers have the Rockies, Europeans the Alps. But for increasingly affluent Asians, Japan's powdery slopes are emerging as the top international draw from Shanghai to Sydney.
Even as skiing wanes in popularity at home, Japanese mountain villages like Niseko are banking on their fabulous snow, high-tech infrastructure and reasonable prices to thrive as snowbound boom towns.
International investors are also taking a keen interest in Japanese resorts as the region's skiers increasingly eschew the likes of Aspen and Davos for the pure powder next door.
'Japan is at the top in Asia in terms of skiing. For good skiers, they know that,' said Mr Patrick So, a 40-year-old Hong Kong financier spending a week on the slopes of Niseko's 1,308m Mount An'nupuri.
Certifying its winter sports pedigree, Japan has twice hosted the Winter Olympics and offers some 620 ski resorts. While the country lacks the stratospheric peaks of Europe or North America - Mount Fuji is the tallest mountain at only 3,776m - Japan has no shortage of good snow.
Niseko's main draw is its consistent blankets of deep, dry powder, averaging 15m a year. Most resorts typically remain open until April.
Located on Japan's northern-most island of Hokkaido at a latitude of Siberia, Niseko is buffeted by sub-Arctic winds that storm across the icy Sea of Japan and drape the countryside in snow.
'Lots of people have been to the Alps or Colorado,' said Mr Neil Riley, who runs WeLoveSnow, a company promoting skiing in the central Japanese resort town of Yuzawa, an easy day trip by bullet train from Tokyo. 'But there's now a lot of bragging rights to say you've been skiing in Japan.'
Japan first showed off its skiing prowess during the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, but the influx of foreign skiers is a recent one - fuelled by the sport's surging popularity in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.
In Niseko alone, the number of visitors from mainland Asia rose fivefold to 13,000 from 2001 to 2005, and the ranks of Australians descending on its sister town of Hirafu exploded from barely 200 to 7,600.
The upturn has been great news for Japan's ski lodges which, like the country's golf courses, expanded at breakneck speeds in the 1980s to match a nationwide rush of well-heeled neophytes. Yet the craze waned with the economic slump the following decade, and is still being undermined by the country's shrinking population.
Today, home-grown skiers and snowboarders number around seven million, only half the 14 million who snapped on boots during the heyday, according to Mr Morio Tsuchiya, a spokesman for the Japan Ski Association.
Some investors think it has already bottomed out and are injecting fresh money into the country's ski facilities.
In December, a unit of United States-based Citigroup Inc. paid 6.2 billion yen (S$77 million) for 12 troubled ski resorts from Japanese conglomerate Seibu Holdings Inc hoping to revive them.
'There is so much snow here, it has real potential to become something special,' said Mr Anthony Mellowes, a property developer from Sydney who was in Hirafu scouting potential condominiums to buy. 'It's fantastic because you've got great skiing plus the different culture.'
Japan has long been a turn-off for foreign visitors because of its high prices and towering language barrier.
But towns like Hirafu show that times are changing. English permeates everything from restaurant menus and bus schedules to ski classes.
Meanwhile, an adult one-day ski pass to Mount An'nupuri costs US$42 (S$64). At Aspen Snowmass, by contrast, a day pass runs nearly double that at around US$82.
Tourists also lap up the Japanese twist on the downhill tradition - ramen noodles at mountain huts instead of fondue, and ubiquitous hot spring baths to soothe sore muscles. Not to mention karaoke.
