Hi everyone,

I'm new to these forums, as well as boarding in Japan, so please excuse an noobness I may display!

Myself and a few mates will be going to Japan in January for the Tokyo Autosalon. We would then like to follow it up with a week of snowbording, so my question is, which area should we go to without going too far from Tokyo, and what would be some good budget resorts to stay at? We want a place where we can hire gear on site and be ski-in ski-out from our lodgings.

Shiga Kogen seems to come up fairly often, but I am really green about all this and there is just way too much stuff to look at - it's all too confusing!

Any info or advice you veterans can offer would be much appreciated

Cheers,
Lloyd

For easy access from Tokyo and good snowboarding - Shiga Kogen, Nozawa Onsen, Myoko Kogen or Hakuba. How people rank them is a different matter but any of these would be good for Japan first timers. Lots of lodges have in-house rental although ski-in, ski-out is probably not as plentiful as Australia. Good luck!

Some people in Nozawa might mention Nozawa.
Some people in Myoko might mention Myoko.
Etc

But....
Yuzawa is by far the easiest place from Tokyo.
You are there within 80 minutes using the bullet train.
And happily I have absolutely no vested interest in anywhere!

ROIDO - seriously, there's so much choice and lots of good places that are possible within a week.

You really need to sit down with a big supply of coffee or preferred drink and start reading and searching on here, and click on some of them there buttons above.

Good luck.

Not as close as Yuzawa, but I can tell you Shiga Kogen is pretty good for boarding if you like all mountain/freeriding. There are some areas for freestyle, but with the size of it, you won't get time to do all the runs. We're planning on going back next year if that's any indication.

With such short time.. for traveling convenience.. would suggest Yuzawa.. there's so much to choose from.. there's Naeba/Kagura... or if you stick to the closer to station places... Ishiuchi and Yuzawa would be great.. But do monitor the snow reports as it gets closer though... this year was really bad for Yuzawa.... I guess there's more rainfall as to snowfall this year .... and i think Yuzawa has more ski in ski out budget options....
Was staying in Schiheil in Ishiuchi maruyama this year... Excellent hospitality and lodging prices... Get a taste of some japanese cooking.. If you've got a big enough group... the owner at times would do a drop off/pick up service to anywhere around the area... Naeba.. Maiko... etc... at no cost..
I find Shiga Kogen slightly pricier... Hakuba is another good place... but you need to travel alittle more... hence more time wasted... and i do think that hakuba would have lesser ski in/ski out budget accommodation...

BTW there is no skijo actually called "Yuzawa". Not in Yuzawa anyway. If that makes sense.

If it's a week it opens up so many places for you. Of course Yuzawa being the very closest. But all of the "main" places and names that have cropped up would be very suitable for a week. In fact, lots of people would be very jealous if you could make it a week! (me included!)

Thanks peoples, that's a good start for me I'll look a bit closer at those places and see which resorts in those spots would be suitable - I think I actually will need to put aside a few long nights and drinks to get through it all!

Are there any specific resorts that anyone would recommend? I'd just like to narrow the search down a bit.

Hopefully I can make it a week, well, it's actually 5 days, and I've been boarding in France before where we would do 3 straight days, then one day off, then 2 more days. So hopefully I can still match it.

Thanks again

Hi Roido

Just a few pointers for info that might be a help.

A bit of an intro with lots of links to places in the site:
http://www.snowjapan.com/e/start-here.html

Reviews written by readers:
http://www.snowjapan.com/e/voice/review.php

Info on some of the main ski towns (not all of course!):
http://www.snowjapan.com/e/japan-ski-town-guides/index.html

Lots of daily reports to browse through:
http://www.snowjapan.com/e/daily/nowcalendar.php

Hope that helps. A lot of reading!

Ah, awesome, thanks SJForums, that will keep me busy for a while! I did try a couple of searches, but man, A LOT of stuff came up and I didn't know where to start!

Personally, I'd take my 5 days in Nozawa + Shiga Kogen.

Good luck with the thinking and planning.

Thanks for all your input peoples, and after many, many hours looking at resorts and places to stay, I finally decided on Nozawa Onsen and I got a pretty good package deal at Lodge Nagano.

Everything we wanted and need seem to be covered in Nozawa, so I'm pretty happy with it and I can't wait for January! Since I live in Perth Western Australia, I have to go a long way to find snow, so it can't come soon enough!

Thanks again - this site kicks ass!

You will surely enjoy Nozawa - most people seem to who go there, hardly ever hear any big negatives about it unlike most other places.

Has Kumanoyu in Shiga Kogen opened up to boarders yet?

I'm skiing most now I think, but my friends will be snowboarding.

Resort data says no, so possibly not?

Sorry missed this --------> no, Kumanoyu is skiers only.

Message for snowboarders... not a huge area, still masses of snow to enjoy at Shiga Kogen.

Also centre maiko is pretty good.

You mean Centleisure Maiko, of course

Good place. Loved your photos from last season muikabochi.