Ski resort and Onsen in Japan?

Question

Hi im looking at spending a day or two skiing on my visit to Japan, i will be staying in Tokyo and then plan to go skiing for 2 days and then catch the train to Kyoto, any suggestions on somewhere close to Tokyo? Also if there was a Onsen there it would be a double bonus. Thanks

Answer 1

I am a serious snowboarder and I live in Tokyo, I have done research and have visited many places in Japan (Honshuu and Hokkaido). Since you are on a vacation trip I can suggest that you try to visit the Gala-Yuzawa area. In fact, Gala-Yuzawa has a pool and onsen style bath-spa. The webiste is www.gala.co.jp . If you can catch the earliest Jouetsu shinkansen from Ueno or Tokyo to Gala-Yuzawa, the shinkansen will stop right under the Gala-Yuzawa main reception building. There you can rent gear and get lift tickets. One gondola ride up and you are on the slopes.

For any general ski-snow package, most people in Japan book through travel agencies in Japan. You can walk right up to the agency and get a few brochures for free. Then once you have made your decision, you can ask the staff to book you a package, including, breakfast, dinner, hotel, and train tickets. The resorts are usually surrounded by small Japanese pensions (AKA bed and breakfast inns) and Japanese ryokan style hotels. These places have onsen style baths. Some places actually have onsens in the neighborhood. I speak and read Japanese so I usually just go to the Odakyu Travel agency in Shinjuku and book my packages there.
http://www.across-travel.com/
is where I book personal trips back to the USA for the family. They speak English along with 20 other languages. You can try them for ski & snow packages. JR Travel also does ski-snow vacations. There is a JR Travel at most mahor JR Stations. English support is hit and miss.
I just got back from a 3 day snow trip to Hakuba (Nagano). For our 3 day stay in Hakuba, we were just about a quick 5 minute walk from Happone resort. Happone is where the 98 Nagano Olympics had the ski jump and slalom competitions. It dumped 20+ cm of snow on us on Sat and Sun. It was white out thigh deep powder conditions! Awesome time!

Nagano does not actually have any ski resorts nearby. You take the Nagano Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano, then you have to take a 1 hour bus ride or local train to Hakuba from Nagano.

Years ago, before I lived in Japan, before kids, while on a business trip to Tokyo, I went to Gala-Yuzawa, rode the shinkansen back to Tokyo and stayed in a capsule hotel. Since I was using the JR Rail pass, I was planning to go back to Gala the next day and snowboard again. I left my snowboard at the left luggage service in Ueno station, and walked around Ueno and looked for a capsule hotel. Back then the huge indoor snowpark was still around, so after my stay in Ueno, I went to SSAWS indoor ski. It was an adventure. SSAWS is gone now, it has been replaced with an IKEA. Go figure! You can always try something like that.

Answer 2

If you go up to Nagano, then you don't have to double back to Tokyo to get to Kyoto. You can catch the train down to Nagoya and get on the Shinkansen there, or through Kanazawa along the coast to Kyoto. Nozawa Onsen would be good as it has plenty of hot springs-it was an onsen town long before anyone thought of skiing. However if you have a rail pass, GALA Yuzawa has the Shinkansen station next to the lift so you can get from Tokyo station to the slope in just over an hour. If you ski on weekdays then you will be able to avoid the worst of the Tokyo mobs.

Answer 3

Nagano, host of the winter Olympics a few years ago should be your place if you are interested in skiing in Japan. Should be plenty of onsens there too and smack in between Tokyo and Kyoto.

Answer 4

Don't rule out skiing in the Tohoku area, resorts like Zao, Appi and Hachimantai are definitely worth consideration. They don't get the attention that the Japan Alps and Hokkaido resorts do, but they have a charm all their own. Appi is very slick and modern, with happening nightlife. Zao and Hachimanti are the places to go if you like tree or back country skiing. "The Wall" at Zao is near vertical and will challenge any skier. If you could time it right to take the steam-locomotive from Koriyama to the Inawashiro-ko resort, and then come back down on the line that runs from Aizu-Wakamatsu down through Nikko-that would be a great trip. However the lifts at Inawashiro sometimes get closed down by wind whipping accross the lake-brrrr.

Answer 5

Shigakogen in Nagano, Onsen and Olympic ski runs
What more could you want.
Personally I prefer Zao but it is a little out of the way.

Shigakogen is the way to go.