- For the first time since April of 2020, tourists will be able to freely enter Japan in time for the winter ski season
It is raining outside, the leaves have yet to turn, summer lingers, and the golf courses are still open; but in a few short months, the snow will return to the northern hemisphere ski fields of Hokkaido Japan.
Skiing in Japan is one thing that many Australians enjoy during their southern hemisphere summer holidays.
Flights to the Japanese city of Sapporo in Hokkaido arrive from every Asian city frequently, often carrying Australian skiers in winter.
But in early March 2020 there were few tourists from anywhere travelling in Japan due to the scare of Covid.
Then on the 6th March 2020 flights returning to Australia via South Korea were banned. Just one weeks later tourist travel ceased from all destinations from around the world.
The last unrestricted flights to Australia from Tokyo touched down prior to midnight on the 15th of March 2020.
For the first time in living memory Australian Government permission was required to leave Australia. Shortly afterwards the Japanese government banned all inbound tourist travel.
Australian state governments then began to severely restrict the numbers of people who could return home from overseas for any reason.
For the first time in since the days of convict transportation in the late 1800s travelling to and from the continent of Australia became very difficult once again.
On the 1st of January 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia was born; six British Colonies became Australian States.
Unrestricted travel and commercial intercourse were specifically enshrined as freedoms within the new Commonwealth of Australia’s constitution. All that ended in April 2020.
In April 2020 the six Australia States rose phoenix like from the ashes to became de facto countries operating under emergency powers that stripped citizens of their basic rights.
It is now known that it was all a fake emergency. Did it really happen?
Much has been written about this nightmare. Unlike in the late 1800s, Australia cannot be isolated globally. In the age of the internet Australian is very connected.
Whereas physical travel was not permitted, travel virtually exploded; zoom meetings became ubiquitous.
All my ancestors came to the continent now know as Australia in ships.
Most of my ancestors came in chains as convicts in the 1820s and 1830s; a few came later seeking their fortune at the time of the Australian gold rushes in the 1850s.
Being isolated within the continent of Australia for the past 30 months has not been a pleasant experience for many Australians; the wounds of incarceration and isolation have emerged from the deep recesses of our minds.
Freedom to travel is something we took for, granted until recently!
Australian roots may have been forgotten by many; something far less know is that Australia has a rich history when it comes to snow and skiing.
In the Australian alpine regions, there is more land under snow each year in winter than in Switzerland.
The diggers who came from Scandinavia countries to dig for gold in the snow country turned fence palings into skis and the first recorded recreational ski club anywhere in the world started in Australia, the Kandahar Ski Club.
Almost exactly one and fifty years later the 2003 bushfire that ravaged the Australian capital city of Canberra triggered another goldrush of sorts in Hokkaido in Japan.
Just like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, a relocated building business from Canberra triggered an annual migration of Australians to Japan.
Australians bought up land, started businesses and ski each northern Japanese winter in their summer holidays. It is no wonder they call Australia the land down under.
More that fifteen metres of snow fall annually in the towns of Hirafu and Rusutsu in Hokkaido.
This famous light powder snow that is perfect for skiing, dumps all over Hokkaido as the moisture from the Japan sea meets the freezing winter air that sweeps down from Siberia.
The snow now generates so much income in the region that property prices and tourism is booming: The snow in Hokkaido is referred to as white gold.
Very soon Australians and skiers from all over the world will return to Japan as the world awakes from this nightmare. Mark it in your calendars; free travel returns to Japan from the 11th of October 2022.
For the Truth Freedom Health movement written from Rusutsu, Hokkaido.
