Ski Japan – Snow Monsters and Snow Monkeys

We love Japan and we love skiing, so a dream trip for us was to travel to Japan with our friends Willem and Christian to do 10 days of skiing in the Nagano prefecture of Japan.

The resorts are smaller than in Europe, there is loads of snow, it is much less crowded and Japanese skiers are so polite and courteous that you will never get cut up on the slopes or pushed out of the lift queue by someone in a dayglo coloured one-piece ski suit.

The wonder of skiing in Japan starts when you arrive at narita airport, and leave your bags for Yamato to deliver to your hotel (see our blog Welcome to Japan) that the gives you the freedom to spend a night in Tokyo, get acclimatised, have some great food and sing karaoke to the early hours.

Shiga Kogen

When you are ready, hop on the Shinkansen for a short ride to Nagano,

then pick up a local bus to the resort of Ichinose…its a bit of a slog (2hrs) but worth it when you get there.

Ichinose is very much a local village, part of the Shiga Kogen resort that groups together around around 19 ski areas and around 68 lifts that you can pretty much go from end to end on a very efficient day.

Lots of great tree runs (especially in the middle area of Takamagahara), not too much off-piste…more linkages between runs,

and with a full night of powder and blue skies during the day then it was perfect for a bit of boarding.

Out on the left (Okushigakogen) were some nice long runs and a great ramen shop on the slopes for perfect ski lunch…that and curry katsu…yummy!

You will also get some night skiing once a week, that is also worth a run.

We stayed at the Shiga Kogen Olympic hotel, basic but perfect for a few days, located right next to the piste and with breakfast and dinner included,

even Matt was getting into rice for breakfast as long as he had his furikake sprinkles on top. The village itself is rather sleepy, but again good enough for a few days and fully blanketed in snow to feel remote.

Snow Monkeys

If the weather turns bad whilst you are here, then take a break from the slopes and head to Kanbayashi Onsen to visit the snow monkees…

about an hour on the bus and then a 45 min walk along a pictoresque valley ( bring shoes with good grip for the icy path) and you will find hundreds of this furry characters relaxing in their personal hot springs…

the pictures describe exactly what is waiting for you but still you need to see their little relaxed faces and poses in real life as it is so astounding.

The monkeys are fed 3 times a day so expect a bit more activity around then but the rest of the time they will be relaxing in the warmth whilst all the visitors are stamping their feet with the cold.

Nozawa Onsen

After a few days at Ichinose we moved to the larger town of Nozawa Onsen. A smaller collection of runs than Shiga Kogen bit with much more apres ski.

It is a bit more international here, especially Australians and you’ll notice that the slopes are just a little bit more aggressive than sedate Shiga.

Still another great base for a few days and even the opportunity for some jumps and bumps.

Make sure you head all the way up to Mt Kenashi where you’ll find the trees have been frozen and frosted into snow monsters (the little cousins of the big ones in the north of Japan).

Accomodatuon is more in the town here, but what you lose in piste proximity is made up for with the choice of hotels and apres ski.

We stayed at the awesome Nozawa Grand Hotel at the north end of town (5 min walk from a little single seater lift up to the main resort.

Huge, traditional rooms (tatami-matted) with perfect views of the mountain and best of all your own private onsen to soak into at the end of a days hard skiing.

The hotel also has a larger shared onsen that has an outdoor section that has stunning views over the town. Naturally the food is amazing, and you can treat yourself to a multi-course kaiseki dinner in formal yukata.

The town itself has many public onsen that you can go to for free, have a look at the cooking ponds (for locals) at the southern end,

go for some Sake

and then a bit of onsen at the main O-Yu onsen…very simple, not even with changing rooms…just walk in strip off and relax in the pool with all the other japanese who have drunk a bit too much sake and want to try out their English.