I was at Club Med Sahoro (that's in Hokkaido) a few weeks ago and had a blast. If you've been following me on
Twitter, you'd probably have read quite a bit about my experience already. Here are five things I enjoyed most from the trip:
#1 The SNOW!
For readers who aren't from tropical countries, you might find this rather hilarious. But having been staying in Singapore (which is summer all year round), I've never seen so much snow in my life before! (I did see some when I was in
Chicago, but it's nothing like what I saw in Hokkaido.)
Just check out these pictures, people:
The snow over there is what they call "powder snow", which is extremely fine. Saw that picture of me lying on the snow ground? When you're dressed appropriately, sleeping on the thick layer of snow actually feels very comfortable.
# 2 I got to ski!
I've never skied before (I mean, how easy is it for a Singaporean to pick up skiing as a sport, right?). Club Med Sahoro is the perfect starting ground, I think. The resort provides easy rental of ski outfits, gears and equipment, the ski grounds are relatively easy (or so I heard), and most importantly, there are ski instructors at hand, who conduct classes of different level of difficulty everyday.
Here's my "classmates" (all Japanese ladies, who became friends with me after a while), and my instructor (in orange top, a Japanese who speaks good English):
3. The food was great!
Club Med has an all-inclusive concept, in other words, all your meals get covered while you're there. Club Med Sahoro has two restaurants, one serves buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the Mina Mina restaurant is a "nabe" (steamboat) concept, which only opens for dinner and is only available by reservation.
I think the most notable thing about the buffet restaurant has to be its wonderful desserts. You'd see why in a bit through my pictures:
The desserts don't just look good. They taste fantastic as well.
The Mina Mina restaurant is also a must-go. The buffet offering is extremely fresh, and there's a wide variety of sauces available.
The concept is such that you begin by putting the food on a tray, and then pour sake over it before covering it up till steam appears. Then, you eat the food with the Pozu sauce, a sour, zesty Japanese sauce.
Once you're done with this first round, you can ask the waiter to remove the tray to reveal a steamboat-like soup. Put the items into the steamboat, cover it up, and wait for steam to appear before you serve yourself.
Finally, add miso, margarine, ramen and other ramen ingredients into the existing soup (or ask for more stock, if you wish) and cook your own ramen!
#4 The GOs were super cool
At Club Med, the staff are called "GO" (which stands for gentil organisateur, which means "nice animator"), and us, guests, are called GM" (which stands for gentil membre, which means "nice member").
On my first dinner, I was pleasantly surprised by a performance at the ski area (which is right outside the buffet restaurant and every diner will be able to see it through the ceiling-to-floor windows). The ski instructors skied down with tiki sticks. Later, the GOs also went around to tables with birthday boys/girls/men/women with a cake and sing the Birthday Song for them.
Every night, the GOs also put up performances to entertain us. While they aren't professional performers, the atmosphere reminds me very much of those school performances I used to go through, so it feels particularly warm.
Don't be surprised too, if any GOs come over to join you at your table for your meals. Most of them do that and I've had many lovely conversations with them.
#5 Get out if you want
For those who want even more activities, you can go for excursions (at an additional fee). Leslie and I went a horse-riding excursion and it was super fun. I love horse-riding and was really eager to do it again.
EXTRA: Free drinks all day long!
I confess, I love to drink. The all-inclusive concept of the resort also includes free alcoholic drinks - and you can imagine how I totally dig it. Drinks are available at the restaurants, as well as the bar.
Ok, more pictures from my Club Med experience before I end this post, including pictures of what I wore indoors. While it's snowing outside, you can simply wear summer clothes inside because it's warm:
Will I be back again? You bet!
