Let me say right up front that I don't much care for snow. While Tokyo constantly disappoints by failing to deliver a white Christmas, that's about as far as my interest goes. And though I have enjoyed the thrills and spills of skiing a few times (before the advent of the snowboard, I admit), the experience was hardly enough to hook me. So believe me when I tell you that the only thing that lured me up to spend New Year's in Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, was the promise of finding a good bar.
Of course, it's not just the sport that draws people to ski resorts the world over. But in Japan, usually the only way to ensure a little apres-ski action is to load up a couple of minivans full of friends and book the biggest tatami room in a minshuku near the snow. For the last three years, Lorne Campbell and Kylie Gregory have slowly (but surely) been working at changing all that -- or at least on their little patch of snow at the foot of the Asagai Snowboard Park near Naeba.
Lorne and Kylie are both winter-sports enthusiasts. They met in Tokyo five years ago after coming to Japan separately (from England and Australia, respectively), and working in the Roppongi bar scene while trying to plug into the daytime job market. Along with some friends, they rented a house in Minakami four years ago and started hitting the snow in earnest in and around Naeba. One day, after boarding down the Asagai slope, they noticed a ramshackle ramen shop at the bottom of the run.