Western skiers and snowboarders who turn up at Japan’s Niseko resort this season are being given the following advice: if you want to buy bread and cheese at the local shops, get there well before dinnertime.
Niseko, a once obscure hideaway on the northern island of Hokkaido, has been transformed in the past half-decade by an influx of foreign tourists and investors, most notably Australians. Lured by a cheap yen as much as the powder-heavy slopes, nearly 18,000 Australians visited last winter, up six-fold over 2003-04.
