Japan ski resort Appi gets new hotels
Move over, Hokkaido’s skiing hub of Niseko and the Japan Alps hot spot of Nagano. There’s a new kid on the block.
A rejuvenated ski and snowboard destination in Japan? And a marketing slogan as cute as “Be happy in Appi”? Move over, Hokkaido’s Niseko hub and the Japan Alps hot spot of Nagano, firmly on the radar since the 1998 Winter Olympics. InterContinental Hotels & Resorts has teamed with Japan’s Iwate Hotel & Resort Co for the imminent opening of a trio of hotels covering more than 1000 rooms in the alpine enclave of Appi (formerly Appi Kogen) in Iwate prefecture in the north of the main island of Honshu.
Appi can be reached by bullet train from Tokyo and connecting shuttle bus in about four hours. It features 21 runs on 334ha of skiable terrain serviced by 10 lifts and a gondola, children’s “snow park” and upgraded facilities for the 2021-22 season, which launches this weekend, and it is located next to the runs of Hachimantai, billed as Japan’s largest area of frost-covered trees and featuring a course centred on north-facing slopes. The destination is also well-visited year-round for its hot springs, seasonal nature activities, golf, mountain biking and hiking.
IHG originally had formed a joint venture with All Nippon Airways in 2006, becoming the primary stakeholder of the airline’s accommodation arm in Japan, opening ANA Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands as well as ultra-luxe ANA InterContinental members such as the new Appi property (pictured). Bookings are available from December 30 for stays in the first quarter of 2022, all with good opening deals.
IHG, the world’s largest luxury hotel collective, with 16 unique brands, is also celebrating its 75th birthday year with a range of worldwide offers. The British-headquartered group has 206 properties in its portfolio with an additional 70 just opened, including Hotel InterContinental Barcelona and Hotel InterContinental Kaohsiung (Taiwan), or ready to launch in destinations as geographically diverse as Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates (February next year) and the Melbourne beachside suburb of Sorrento (April).
intercontinental.com/75thanniversary
JO MAKITO
Get the gloss
Time to pretty up that coffee table or treat a friend or family member to a beautiful book? How about this tempting trio.
Great World Wonders by Michael Turtle
There’s a slew of UNESCO World Heritage sites in this chunky and well-illustrated volume, including the feted marvels of Peru’s Machu Picchu citadel and India’s emblematic Taj Mahal. Australian writer Michael Turtle has clocked up visits to more than 300, with more sites in his sights. He points out the intricacies of ongoing conservation and environmental (and mass tourism) practicalities, citing UNESCO’s “delisting” of two sites, the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman and sections of Dresden in Germany, respectively due to habitat degradation and disregard of urban environment. At least six are on a “warning” list if moves to compromise authenticity affect their status. Meantime, this comprehensive album is an armchair investigator’s delight. Hardie Grant, $45.
The Science of Hope By Wiebke Finkler and Scott Davis
The theme “eye to eye with our world’s wildlife” takes readers on an informative journey via science communicator Finkler’s learned observations on conservation and Davis’s brilliant photography, often in compelling close-up, of creatures small, great and even greater, such as polar bears. Males weigh up to 800kg; their paws, each about 30cm wide and covered in small bumps to grip the ice, are “nature’s ultimate snowshoe”. The glossy, generously priced title is sorted into land and marine species, from whale sharks and elephants to monarch butterflies and comical penguins, “the cornerstone of charisma in the [flightless] bird world”. Exisle Publishing, $45.
The Essence of Thailand by Kim Buddee
Australian architect, photographer and film production designer Kim Buddee presents a varied and textured look at the so-called Land of Smiles in this comprehensive tribute. He’s in company with good mate Theo (the two played together in a rock band in Perth “many years ago”), who lives in Thailand, so expect glimpses beyond the well-known sights and into markets, fishing villages, the architectural forms of wild bamboo in Khao Sok National Park, bright floral garland offerings on sacred banyan trees, and monks waiting to board a train at Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Station, their vivid orange robes glowing against low-lit platforms. The book was five years in the making and is a fine follow-up to Buddee’s previous albums on (the then) Burma and Cuba, places poised on the cusp of great change. Tour de Force Books/Amazon.com.au, $29.95.
Spend it
A range of rich, soft cheeses made in brie style, primarily with cow’s milk, are created in France’s Rhones-Alpes region by Jean-Claude Guilloteau of Fromager d’Affinois, available at Coles, Woolworths, IGA and selected delis. A wedge of truffle-infused double cream deliciousness would be a welcome Christmas offering, but why not elevate the experience with a cheesy picnic spread over summer. Take, for example, blue triple cream brie, red chilli pepper double cream, signature Petit d’Affinois buttery double cream (in a carton) or options with goat’s or sheep’s milk. All silky and spreadable with bloomy white rinds. Or compose a hamper with muscatels, fig and walnut rolada (at supermarkets), Maggie Beer’s oven-baked crackers with sea salt, and a premium Opinel cheese knife and fork set, from suppliers such as Kitchenware ($66.95). Le pique-nique awaits.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Book club
WHY DID I BUY THAT?
Kirstie Clements
Effortlessly stylish Sydney-based journalist and commentator Kirstie Clements, a former editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, dives headfirst into a range of wardrobe issues in this enjoyable book.
“Fashion can be sublime and magical, but it can also be exhausting …” she declares. Here’s a woman who loves couture but sees it for what it is, inconsistencies, hoaxes et al. But if someone as polished as Clements can veer from “caring about fashion” to “not giving it a second thought”, then what hope for the rest of us?
Well, prepare for sage advice aplenty plus “tips and tricks” deftly distilled to key messages, including that whatever we decide to buy and wear should ultimately make us, and only us, happy.
“Anything you like and feel good in,” Clements writes, while admitting that approach has made her a “very pragmatic editor, though, in truth, never a fashion savant”. The tone is chatty and confessional, as if we’re yakking at a sleepover in our PJs trying to hold in our tummies. And it’s this lack of pretence that makes the book so valuable and non-judgmental. There’s humour in abundance, too, especially when it comes to advice on editing wardrobes, but not to fit inside those “little elf houses in Ikea, where they optimistically demonstrate how to live comfortably in 10sq m [with] one skinny cupboard in which they suggest a human could store their fashion items”.
Just halving what you have is “a great place to start if you’re keen to downsize” as that way there’s space to add “a trend-driven piece or two each season”.
She lists the 12 fashion classics, from a tailored blazer to a versatile oversized comfy cardigan, and reveals rules that were “made to be broken”, such as saving garments and accessories for “best”.
How to spot a fake Vuitton handbag? Help is at hand. This fashion primer would have been a whole other kettle of Kenzo in lesser hands but I now feel emboldened to wear a tiara and leggings to the local pie shop, just ’cause I can, and have memorised the “five must-haves that nobody really must have”, including “tizzy handbag and phone charms from a luxury house”. As Clements wisely puts it, “The world does not need more landfill or animals killed to add a furry ornament to an already over-designed handbag …”
Bewildered by beauty products? What not to take on a trip? What does dress code mean, anyway? All smoothed out, unpacked and demystified in a very practical fashion.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
