Japan 23/24 Season

[skysos]

Not sure where I heard it (maybe here?) but there was some advice we took for our trip in early February: When planning a trip to Japan, best to arrive before Feb 15th. We did Jan 30-Feb 4 and it delivered. Not spectacularly but powder and soft snow was skied just about every day.

[BFD]

I just wasted a little time on SnowJapan. Looked at daily snowfall observed at base data for a coupe of areas. It appears that snowfall does drop off after Feb.16th and the storms are not as large. Only looked at 3 places though. Mr. T is having a huge year. Japan is all about the food and lodging. There is no reason to be staying in a lousy place.

[gramboh]

From my n=1 experience of skiing in Japan, I would not go without a touring setup and the ability/willingness to tour. Too risky otherwise unless you are going for 3 weeks or something. Also because of the limited resort terrain. We had 2 nights of ~20-25cm on our 8 day trip mid to late January but still skied untracked every lap via touring.

[BFD]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/w...smid=url-share

[54-46]

[emoji638]][emoji640][emoji639]][emoji638][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]][emoji638][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji640][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji639]]]Of course….we primarily skied Isola….can see it would be incredible with fresh…..awesome trees. The hotel is what’s awful, like a cruise ship.


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Which hotel? And where would you stay next time?


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[SUPERIOR]

Just wrapped my fifth season in Japan. Gotta have a rental car and booking.com these days. Chase the snow and you will be rewarded.

Mom and pops are the way to go. You can do it for so cheap. The biggest mistake I see is posting up at one resort for 5 days, no ski touring gear, no rental car. Gotta do 7-10 days and look at the weather and be mobile.

Check out our guide service and hit me up with questions:

www.Hokkaidobackcountryclub.com
www.mattskisjapan.com

[Tech Tonics]

Hi all, hope it’s ok to bump this thread with a long post. I don’t think there’s a more recent Japan thread?

This January we are going to be in Japan for about 10 days, tied into a trip from Vietnam, so we only have about a week to ski. Pretty early in the year, roughly 1/2-1/9 will be our ski days.

Primarily (duh) looking for powder skiing, but also looking for cool Onsens, traditional ryokans, good food and to avoid ski-town vibes and experience more traditional Japanese culture. We don’t mind a short drive to the ski areas if it means saving a few bucks or staying in cool little villages.

Riding chairs is cool, but we prefer to tour, or a least a mix. With wife and daughters (21+18) and they like to hike but not huge days.

We have places tentatively booked in Nazawa onsen for a few nights and Shibu for a few nights. Though the cursory research I’ve done on Shibu makes me less-stoked to be skiing at Shiga Kogen.

The plan is we fly into Tokyo and leave all our ski stuff in lockers at the airport where we then catch another flight to Hanoi. Climbing a few days in Huu Long and then a few days with some family friends in Hanoi.

Then back to Tokyo, switch to winter-mode and Shinkansen (to Yudanaka?)

Are we off here? I know, we should spend our entire trip in Japan, but we love Hanoi and the wife is more of a climber sooooooo compromise

Given the holidays, short window and 4 people, we don’t think storm chasing will be possible.

Also spending a few days in Kyoto.

Should we re-evaluate our ski plans? Things are tentative.

Myoko? Madarao? Hakuba?




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[tintin5]

Don’t bring ski stuff on the train. When you land in Tokyo, arrange to have it sent ahead to your accommodation via black cat, or one of the other shipping/transport companies. At the very least, you can have it sent ahead to luggage storage in Nagano, and pick it up when you get your rental car. Same thing for the way home, just leave a day or two for a buffer.