St. Moritz of the East

Simon's picture
by Simon
8 Jun, 2010

Driving along the St. Moritz Bridge the other day it made me wonder what Kutchan and the greater Niseko area had in common with St. Moritz other than Kutchan being a sister city to the town in the Eastern Alps of Europe. After an hour on the net I really couldn't find much except for a reference on the Niseko Tourism site saying that the Niseko area was hailed as the "St. Moritz of the Orient" in the early and mid 1900's. So I  decided to looked at some pictures on Google and Flickr to conjure up an image and then went out and took a few photos. Below you can see a few I took and also some links to Wikipedia so as you can make you own mind up. annupuri from kyowa

st. moritz bridge with niseko annupuri under clouds

Sasson Club in Niseko

Sasson Club in Niseko with Moiwa mountain behind the cherry blossoms

st. moritz kutchan sister city Wiki for Kutchan Wiki for St. Moritz What do you think?





Comments

tobias

20 June 2010 - 5:06pm

Hey Simon how it going?

I have been to the real St Moritz -- Completely different atmosphere and everything. Swiss mountain scenery cant be compared to Niseko. I think it's always a bad idea to imitate something, especially if it it's so not related. Also at the same time missing the chance to create a brand own its own.

Simon

21 June 2010 - 7:30pm

Hi Tobias, yeah I think you are right but don't really think the Niseko area is trying to imitate and it is creating it own unique brand and doing it quite naturally too.

I just found it interesting that there was a reference to Niseko being the St. Moritz of the Orient and that Kutchan is its sister city, I still do wonder if there is a relation. I wonder who could tell us?

I will post a few photos of some contrasts or should I say some unique aspects to Niseko soon or I guess look through some previous posts, thanks for dropping by!