The Hottest Thing on Ice

Outside, the warm, damp breath of a late summer typhoon still hangs heavy in the air, but inside the Ski Dome, the temperature is an immutable 23 degrees.

It is not yet 10 a.m. on an ordinary Friday, but the parking lot is already full of shiny new mini-jeeps, and several hundred young people carefully dressed in up-to-the-minute, baggy, drab clothing are lined up waiting to get in. The attraction: snowboarding, Japan’s latest sports craze.

In this land of abundant yen but short-lived snow, snowboarding is more than just a winter amusement. In Japan it’s seen as the successor sport to Southern California’s trademark pastimes, surfing and skateboarding, and as such has become a fashion sensation, a hip lifestyle statement and a retailing bonanza.

The number of Japanese snowboarders has quadrupled in four years, from 200,000 in the winter of 1992-’93 to an estimated 800,000 this season, according to the Japan Snowboarding Assn.

“If they say in the mass media that it’s popular in America, then everyone here will go out and do it,” said Keisuke Wamatsu, 29. “It’s that kind of country.”

Snowboarding got a big boost here last year with the announcement that it will be included as a full-medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics to be held in Japan’s Nagano prefecture.

The snowboarding boom has spawned snowboarding stores, snowboarding-inspired street fashion and at least 10 specialty magazines. The look consists of baseball caps, loose shirts or formless Windbreakers with no pockets or other decoration except a single exposed metal zipper, and extra-wide, floppy pants, all in hyper-muted shades archly described by one Tokyo salesclerk as “insect-colored.”

The latest footwear is tennis shoe-style boots with 2-inch-thick rubber soles, worn summer and winter in popular Tokyo hangouts by both men and women who wouldn’t dream of climbing aboard a narrow slab of whizzing plastic.

Thick-rimmed, earth-colored sunglasses ($69 and up) are de rigueur whether on the subway or the slopes, though serious boarders tend to favor goggles.

Plenty of boarders (and boarder fashion plates) dye their hair to the reddish-brown shade that Japanese surfers achieve naturally after an entire summer in the sun. Some go all the way to California blond or neon-pink, while a few manage to tease and twist their straight, heavy hair into authentic-looking dreadlocks topped with red-and-green knit berets.

A few old fogies just like the speed and sizzle of snowboarding and show up on the slopes wearing orthodox ski clothes or baggy blue jeans. But they are in the minority in Japan, where looking the part is 90% of the point of most leisure activities.

In general, the fashion principle is: the more Southern Californian, the better.

“The amount of time it takes a 747 to fly to Narita [Tokyo’s international airport] is the amount of time it takes for a trend to hit there,” said Dennis Jenson, senior vice president for Burton Snowboards. The Burlington, Vt., company makes the best-selling brand in Japan, according to the Japanese press.

“These kids are on the Net, they’re subscribing to American publications and they’re watching American [snowboarding] videos,” Jenson said.

At the Ski Dome, a giant indoor artificial mountain that opened to skiers three years ago, a once-a-week snowboarding period was introduced last year. It quickly grew so popular that the slopes are now closed to skiers six mornings a week to give boarders the run of the place.

One hundred dollars--about the price of an average sushi dinner here--pays for the 30-minute train ride from downtown Tokyo Station to the Ski Dome; the rental of sweatpants, sweatshirt, waterproof snowsuit, gloves, snowboard and soft boots; and two hours’ boarding time. (Warm socks and hot coffee are not included in the price, but both can be purchased on the spot.)

Admission alone is $40, which in Tokyo is considered not a bad price for a morning’s fun. High school and college students, young office workers taking a day off and even honeymooners are flocking here--nearly 1.2 million snowboarding customers last year. Some are snowboard devotees trying to get in shape for the season, but at least half seem to be novices who have come to try snowboarding for the first time.

“It’s easier than skiing,” concluded Hwa Ji Kwan, 33, who works for a South Korean company in Tokyo. “Also, snowboarding is freer. You can wear anything. . . . But it hurts more when you fall.”

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Wamatsu, who owns a cleaning company and spends every weekend on the slopes in winter, started out as a skier and took up snowboarding four years ago. He broke his shoulder doing a hot-dog snowboard jump last winter but came to the Ski Dome once a month through the summer to get in shape for the coming season.

“I like skiing better, and I’m better at it too, but isn’t it good to be good at both?” Wamatsu said. Later, he added: “I’m one of those Japanese with a weakness for things American.”

But things American have a way of taking on a distinctive--some say goofy--Japanese twist. The Ski Dome’s official name is the “Lalaport Skidome SSAWS,” but it is better known here as “Zaosu,” the Japanese pronunciation of the acronym that means “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter Snow.”

Billed as the world’s largest indoor ski slope, it cost about $360 million to build, measures 1,344 feet high and 275 feet wide, and uses about as much energy per day as the average Tokyo skyscraper. It has a dusky sky-blue ceiling that “snows” about a centimeter of ultra-fine powder (pure frozen water, no polymers, in particles a tenth the size of the average snowflake) every morning before the customers enter.

Like Tokyo’s other artificial sporting landmark, a giant swimming pool that produces perfect waves for indoor surfing, the Ski Dome boasts supra-natural conditions every day of the year.

Two high-speed chair lifts, one on each side of the slope, whisk snowboarders up to the top of the “mountain” in two minutes. An ace boarder can make it back down in under a minute, said Ski Dome spokesman Keiichi Toyoda.

Those who want to go only partway up to the gentle beginner’s slope or prefer to take the scenic route can step onto a beltway that glides uphill at the clip of a fast escalator.

The Ski Dome has no moguls to contend with, and its sides are made of a dense foam that cushions crashes. There is, however, a large jump from which the boarders seem to levitate, then hover for a moment or pivot like inverted human helicopters before hurtling on down the slope.

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At the bottom is an apres-ski lodge where the young boarders sip coffee, socialize and check out what everyone else is wearing. “Last year the style was loose pants but this year the pants are narrower,” Kwan reported.

“I plan to buy the clothes this season, but I’m not sure about the boots or the board,” said her friend Yoshida Tomo, 24, who had just been snowboarding for the first time. “It depends on the money.”

Japan accounts for an estimated 20% to 30% of the $800 million-a-year global snowboarding industry. Last year alone, half a million boards were sold at prices ranging from $500 to $1,200 or even more.

That blitz may not be repeated; retailers imported so much snowboarding paraphernalia that inventories are sky-high, and last year’s snowboards are now being marked down as much as 70%--an upsetting development for Japanese retailers with a traditional allergy to discounting.

Still, plenty of young Japanese will be going snowboarding this winter for the first time, and many will buy an entire snowboarding outfit at prices ranging from $800 to $1,300 before setting off for the mountains.

Noriko and Tasahi Komoike, ages 20 and 21, came to the Ski Dome from Osaka on their honeymoon to check out snowboarding. After trying it for an hour, they decided they liked it enough to drop $1,400 for snowboarding outfits for two.

“We usually wear the clothes on the street anyway,” Noriko said. After suffering through years of skin-tight fashion, the petite and slender bride confessed what may be the real secret of snowboard fashion success: She loves the carefree loose and floppy look. “I like it because I don’t have to worry about my body lines,” she said.