Exploring eight resorts by train on mainland Honshu and Hokkaido in the north threw up some big surprises. Tom Herbst reports on what it’s like to hit the pistes in the Land of the Rising Sun
It all happened so fast. The apartment block next to us started making an odd whistling noise, my iPhone’s emergency alarm screamed and a text from the Japanese Meteorological Agency arrived simultaneously warning, ‘Stay calm and seek shelter nearby’. But, it was when the road started vibrating seconds later that it became bloody obvious what was going on. No, it’s not every day you go to a ski resort and experience an earthquake.
The epicentre measuring magnitude 7.5 was fortunately about 60 miles away as the crow flies on the Noto Peninsula – the largest strike on mainland Japan for over a decade. When the aftershock hit us, it was mid-afternoon and were strolling down the main street of Akakura in Niigata prefecture, a county on the west coast of Honshu, largest of the Japanese islands. We stopped, stood still, waited for the rocking to end and decided to continue on our way.
At the Akakura Park Hotel, we paid ¥800 (£4.25) to use their onsen, found the men’s section, stripped off (no swimming shorts are allowed), sat on little plastic potties to shower – called kakeyu – and then slipped into the hot, slightly sulphur smelling baths to relax. And the earthquake evidence? A couple of tiles had popped off the wall, that was all.
The day before, my friend Jonny and I had travelled from Tokyo to Akakura. ‘Wakuwaku shitemasu’ (I’m excited) was a phase I kept thinking of when we landed and it certainly had been whacko at Tokyo Station after a short train transfer from Narita Airport. The lower levels of the station were mobbed by literally hundreds and hundreds of people jostling to get their trains so it took a moment to work out where to go and push through with our bags. Knowledge of Kanji and Hiragana isn’t required as signage is all in English.
In the food hall, we did DIY bento box building (trains don’t have buffet cars on them) and loaded with yakitori and prawn tempura, it was up to platform level for the first leg of our trip – a 1¾ hour train ride to Nagano (home to the 1998 Winter Olympics) followed by a swift change to get us to the stop for Akakura – a station called Myoko Kogen – about 40 minutes later.
Trains in Japan: see it, say it, they’re totally sorted
Train travel in Japan is the total antithesis to the UK. No late, slow, grubby trains with toilets smelling of desperation. No graffiti. No HS2 indecision flip flopping. Japan Railways Group run local and express services as well as the famous super-fast Shinkansen, colloquially known as bullet trains, which launched in 1964.
Today, the Shinkansen system links the whole country and has grown to a shade under 1,500 miles of dedicated track. The trains are sleek, aerodynamic – almost futuristic looking – and achieve speeds of up to 200 mph. Michael Portillo would be in heaven.
In fact, the Shinkansen feels more plane than train. Seats recline, carriages are clean, conductors even bow as they enter and those interested in horology will marvel at the punctuality which is mind bogglingly impressive. Delays are measured in seconds. And as onboard announcements are made in English – along with Japanese obviously and surprisingly Chinese – navigating the system is a breeze.
Myoko – heading off the beaten track in Niigata
At Myoko Kogen, affable Australian, Bryce Elvin, founder of Powder Recon picked us up in one of his 4X4 minibuses and drove us to his lodge just 10 minutes away. A trained engineer, he’s elegantly renovated the building using birch veneer on the walls, shoji over the windows, plaster board wallpaper (paint would crack because of the earthquakes) and a mix of wood and tatami mats on the floors. It is warm, charming and relaxed – a B&B arrangement where you muck in with the other guests over breakfast. They like to keep numbers to around 18 people, but if you don’t fancy a shared lodge, he has three newly refurbed two-bed apartments up the road available for rent, too.
Powder Recon is aptly named. Offering cultural and guiding trips in Niigata – we’d selected the Myoko Powder Tour – the team work out which of the 15 local resorts to go to based on a reconnoitre of the weather and snow conditions. After a briefing each day to discuss the plan, 6 or 7 guides then take small groups of around 24 guests out for the morning. After lunch you ski alone.
Close to the lodge are two small, connected resorts – Akakura Onsen and Akakura Kanko – which sit lower down on the eastern flank of Mount Myoko, standing at 2,454m. We used them to warmup as the skiing is pretty limited. Resort elevation is low at 1,500m, there’s just 760m of vertical, one old school Poma lift from 1984 and some chairs. It’s not what I imagined.
Next morning, it was a powder day – 10 to 15cm fell overnight – so we started early and headed to another resort – Myoko Suginohara – 15 minutes away. The snow had arrived wetter and later than expected so the guidance was to go for elevation which Suginohara has at 1,855m making it the highest resort in the area, with apparently the longest run in Japan at 8.5 km.
Suginohara is low key. You drive there, there’s no lodging, it’s all very simple – parking, a small lift station, loos and a base restaurant.
By 9.30am, we were standing at the top of the mountain on the oddly named ‘E2’ run. Patrick – our guide – took us through the pines and silver birches and we lapped joyously taking in our first taste of Japanese powder, followed by wide cruisey runs. By lunch, the new snow was skied out, heavy and wet so we retired to a (basic) on-mountain restaurant, munching pork katsu, rice and miso soup for ¥1200 (£6.32). The cost of food is cheap which – again – is not what I imagined.
On day three, we drove east to Madarao Mountain Resorts, comprising two linked areas Madarao Kogen and Tangram which are more ‘resort-like’ with hotel, shopping and rentals. Skiing on Mount Madaro at 1,382m is fairly extensive– 51 runs, 16 lifts and some nice trees to explore. The snow was good so we hiked from the top of lift 1 to access untracked powder and pretty views of Lake Nojiri in the distance.
That night was punctuated by another minor earth tremor – nothing more than a rattling of the lodge’s windows – but still registering magnitude 5. It was a reminder that Japan sits in a highly seismic area where four converging tectonic plates continually grind together.
Lotte Arai was our next resort stop. Originally bought and developed in 1993 by Hideo Morita – son of the Sony founder, Akio – he poured hundreds of millions into the 200 hectare site before it got into financial difficulty and closed in 2006, after which the resort lay empty for a decade. South Korea’s fifth biggest company, Lotte – originally a confectionary business – bought Arai in 2016 and has since renovated it. There’s a massive magnolia coloured hotel complex at the base, more modern lifts and our ‘first class’ lift tickets gave access 30 minutes before everyone else. Unfortunately, the weather was poor on the day we visited, with rain at the lower levels (elevation is just 329m) so it was a short day ending in the bar. Interestingly, if you have an IKON Pass, it’s valid here.
The Myoko region is unknown to foreign skiers which begs the question as to why go there. The back to basic nature of it might not appeal to some but the attraction for me was threefold: it’s not busy (mostly it’s Japanese), daily lift tickets are sub £30 and most importantly, according to Snow Japan, it is one of the snowiest places in the country regularly getting around 15 metres per season.
Little off-the-beaten track resorts like Akakura, Suginohara, Madarao-Tangram and Lotte Arai would therefore be dynamite if the weather was right. Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t and – given time was short – we decided to go north to Hokkaido.
The snow mecca of Japan is Hokkaido
The trip to do this was a pleasure in itself. Two local trains from Myoko Kogen to Nagano, a swap onto the Shinkansen line to Omiya and then another change to head up on a bullet train to Shin Hakodate-Hokuto at the end of the high speed network.
This took us through the Seikan Tunnel – second longest in the world at 33.46 miles which links Honshu with Hokkaido. Then finally back onto two local services to the city of Kutchan, the closest train stop to Niseko. We left at 8.44 in the morning, arrived at 18.17 – just four minutes (no typo) behind schedule having taken six trains. Again, I just hadn’t expected this kind of proficiency.
The Hokkaido Shinkansen line is currently being extended 131.73 miles from its current terminus to Sapporo and is expected to open by March 2031. A stop at Kutchan is included meaning direct access from Tokyo to the skiing in circa 5 hours, without the additional two train fiddle that we had to do.
Hokkaido immediately lived up to everything I’d hoped for as it was snowing when we arrived. Our first hotel – the Freedom Inn – sent its minibus to collect us and we squirrelled our way 4.5 miles along roads banked high with snow, the driver guided where to go by arrow shaped signs hung overhead pointing down to where the (road) edges lay.
Niseko: the Aspen Snowmass of Japan?
Skiing in Niseko is on Mount Niseko Annupuri – altitude 1,308m – which is peppered with trees and even small bamboo bushes. I wasn’t expecting that either.
It’s actually four connected areas: Hanazona, Grand Hirafu, Niesko Village and Annupuri, with a bus service linking everything (free if you have an all areas lift ticket). It reminded me of Aspen Snowmass in size, although the difference is you can ski between the areas.
The Freedom Inn is close to Hanazona so that was our starting point. Although the lodge is a bit basic, the big bonus of staying there was the on-tap minibus shuttle willing to take us where we wanted – also for free.
The base area has a large restaurant called the Edge, a pop up Louis Vuitton outlet (no doubt catering for the brand loving Chinese), a Niseko Sports clothing and rental shop and ticket desk. An all mountain day pass cost ¥9,500 (£49.75) – IKON is also valid – and picking up poles and Rossignol Soul 7s was ¥24,000 (£124.50) for four days. There’s also a coffee bar and a huge adventure centre called the Galaxy of Kidz, complete with ball pit, jungle gym and climbing walls for children from two upwards.
Poma have been doing well here. There’s a new(ish) 10 person gondola called the Hanazona Symphony, along with a hooded 6 passenger high speed detachable chair lift, with heated seats both which opened in 2021. A swift ski over to the Hanazano Quad Lift 2, and then off piste back down, hugging the boundary rope in powder knee deep reinforced in my mind why it is worth spending so long on flights and trains to get here. It’s mega.
Over the next few days, we explored the whole system, and shifted accommodation to the My Eco Lodge on the outskirts of Grand Hirafu. This is worth knowing about if you’re trying to keep costs down. It’s budget but perfectly nice. Not only are there cost effective twins but dormitory rooms sleeping four are available, too. There’s also a decent restaurant on site, with bowls of steaming hot miso ramen just ¥800 (£4.17).
Grand Hirafu is everything you’d expect from an international resort – real estate shops, swish hotels and apartments, retail outlets, bars, restaurants – even a cool outdoor food truck village serving ‘street’ takeaway. To give you a heads-up, the Ace Quad Lift 2 Center 4 lift will be upgraded to a new gondola for season 2024-25.
Language here is not an issue for clumsy Brits – like me – who struggle with the local lingo. No offence to our antipodean friends, but the resort seems almost taken over by Kiwis and Aussies such that you barely need to speak Japanese. This is not a negative. It’s what it is, and everyone was friendly and welcoming.
In Grand Hirafu, we again focused on the trees, hunting for the deeper powder and heading each day to a quirky, family run restaurant – called Boyo-so – for lunch. It has a coal fired burner in the centre and the walls are peppered with the faded pictures of all the mountains the owner has climbed. A set lunch was ¥1,500 (£7.78) and, like all other Japanese on-mountain dining places, you choose your meal by putting cash into a vending machine and taking a ticket to a counter where you’re then served.
Night skiing is on offer as well and you can ski up to 7pm to get the max out of your ski pass. Again, I hadn’t clocked that this was possible before arriving. We tried it in Annupuri, with massive flood lights illuminating the way. Lifts over in that part of the mountain are more dated – maybe a reflection of the investment strategy of owners, The Chuo Bus Company – but nonetheless there was a good amount of terrain to check out.
After four days, it was time to go. Snow had fallen every day and this might sound counter intuitive, but there was too much and a lot of the mountain was closed not helped by the high winds. We didn’t even get to see the active volcano, Mount Yotei, which looms over the area at 1,898m and is reminiscent of Mount Fuji given its conical shape. Cloud covered it the whole time.
Super Sapporo
Back on the train, we transferred to Sapporo, Hokkaido’s capital city (population 1.9 million) and stayed at the Hoshino Resorts’ Omo 3 Hotel in the Susukino district which reminded me of Soho in the 80s – hostess bars with siren-like women sitting in windows beckoning you to come in, mixed with literally tons of place to eat. We were told 3,500 outlets making it the foody centre of the city.
Omo 3 opened in 2022, has 166 rooms and positions itself as super skier friendly. In reception, there was ski storage, a free waxing station to fettle your kit and an original gondola from local ski area, Kokusai – 27.5 miles up the road – which we tried first. A major value add is that the hotel laid on a free transfer bus which takes 75 minutes each way.
At 1,100m and four lifts only, Kokusai might not sound like much, but the snow was good, lots of deep powder stashes and we happily did laps watching groups of identically clothed, numbered school kids from Kyushu learning how to ski. A word of caution if you rent skis. Despite filling out a form with my weight, I didn’t check the technician had set my DIN settings correctly and ejected straight out the moment I ventured into powder.
The following day, we headed west from the city centre to Sapporo Teine by train – a 16 minute hop – our JR rail passes helpfully valid on the connecting bus which took us up to the resort. This splits into two: the lower level Olympia Zone and the upper Highland Zone where we got off. It was then straight to the summit at 1,023m. Again, don’t be put off by the low mountain height. The snow was excellent and the views stunning over Ishikari Bay.
The resort nomenclature reflects the fact that in 1972 Sapporo was home to the first Winter Olympics in Asia. Teine hosted the slalom and GS racing. The steeper runs meant that groomed pistes like the Women’s GS course were quite testing – a nice contrast to some of the other resorts we visited.
In the restaurant, we watched the making of Taiyaki – delicious small cakes like madeleines which we bought and wolfed down hungrily before heading back out to ski.
Asahikawa – nothing to do with the beer but another city gateway to local slopes
Our final Japan tour destination was Asahikawa City, pretty much in the heart of Hokkaido and its second largest city. It’s about 85 miles northeast of Sapporo so a quick 1.5 hour train ride.
We were booked into another Hoshino Resorts’ hotel, the similarly named – Omo 7 – which had been refurbished in 2018 and has an elegant contemporary boutique design, massive lounge and absolutely fabulous onsen in the basement. The breakfast deserves a call out, too. Western and Japanese and as much as you could eat.
Kamui Ski Links was the last ski resort we tried, 30 minutes up the road by bus – again free given we were Omo guests. The base is 150m, summit 751m, there’s a rather dated Nippon Cable gondola lift plus five chairs. The stats don’t do it justice though. There was hardly anyone there, it snowed heavily (they get around 8m per season) and we spent two days exploring the trees, enjoying the powder and blasting down the easy pistes. Like Suginohara, Kokusai and Teine, there’s no lodging, it’s a small area but there is plenty of skiing for a day or two.
And that brought our train fuelled adventure to a reluctant end. The following day, it was back on an express for the last time – a 1.25 hour run back to Sapporo, a swap onto a different train line and then 40 minutes out to Shin-chitose Airport for a flight to Tokyo and back to London.
So, how to sum up our two week trip? Skiing in Japan wasn’t what I expected at all: mountains are lower, runs therefore shorter, lift infrastructure – with some exceptions like Hanazona – generally older and mostly dates back to the Japanese ski boom time in the 80s and early 90s.
There aren’t the massive, interconnected ski systems like Les 3 Vallees, Ski Arlberg or Dolomiti Super Ski with miles and miles to explore. You might be beginning to wonder why bother.
But that would be to miss the attraction and charm of Japan. In contrast to the Alps, the mountains are tree covered and it’s crowd and queue free. In some of the smaller resorts, the pistes were fairly empty and even Niseko wasn’t bad with the exception of the odd pinch point around a couple of key lifts.
Then there is the food. It’s off the charts good – not all raw fish as many think – and part of the fun was to go out exploring in the food quarters particularly in Sapporo and Asahikawa as we did. A beer is universally ¥800 (£4), with on mountain dining a bargain (by the way, you do need to have cash for the vending machines). It isn’t as fancy like some European resorts and the restaurants are basically canteens.
People are courteous, logistics were a breeze, language no issue and lift pass pricing is sensible (I’d even go as far to say cheap). It all adds up to being very tourist friendly.
But the key thing is the amount of snow. The promise of so-called Japanese Pow was real: it’s abundant, deep and frankly amazing. That is the Japanese attraction in a nutshell. Over the 13 days we were there skiing, it snowed for eight.
There’s only one downside I can point to and that is you have to suck up the reality of a long haul flight (to Tokyo from London it’s circa 13 ½ hours), plus you’re then on trains (which were super as I’ve described) or another internal flight. That is really only it. If going to Japan is on your bucket list, then do get out there and tick it off – you’ll be incredibly glad you did.
Useful travel background
- For train travel information and intuitive route planning, check out the super helpful Japan Travel by Navitime website.
- JR Rail passes need to be purchased in the UK before travel. You get given a voucher which has to be exchanged for an actual ticket on arrival at a JR Travel Centre – there’s one at both Haneda and Narita airports in Tokyo. 7 days is £274. 14 days is £439. Don’t lose it though. They can’t be replaced. The Japan Travel Centre in London is very helpful and will either post you a voucher or you can collect in person.
- Even if you have a JR Rail pass, booking seats on most Shinkansen trains is required – with other trains having seating available in ‘non reserved’ carriages. Best advice is to plan ahead and book – it’s just easier and less awkward if you avoid sitting in some-one else’s place.
- Powder Recon’s Myoko Tour pricing starts from £1,226pp for a week’s B&B at the lodge including morning guiding, local lift tickets and van transfers. Two bed, two bath apartments are also available from £1,440pp per week.
- My Eco Lodge. Twins start at ¥24,000 per night. Dormitory rooms sleeping four are available from ¥8,000 (£41.90) per person.
- Omo 3 Sapporo Susukino and Omo 7 Asahikawa by Hoshino Resorts. Our room for two at Omo 7 was ¥18,600 (£97.30) for a night.
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