Japan's Top Skiing Destinations
Happo One
The Hakuba Valley is probably the best skiing region in Japan, and Happo One is the
jewel among its five resorts - seven if you count the tiny areas of Hakuba Minekata and
Hakuba Highland across the valley. With a backdrop of serious peaks reaching almost
10,000, Happo One staged the blue ribbon event of the 1998 Olympics: the men's downhill.
It also staged the men's Super-G and ski jumping. (Shiga Kogen hosted most of the
remaining events.)
Happo has 35 lifts and the prettiest resort village a slightly Walt Disneyish collection
of crenellated, mock Tudor buildings through which winds an attractive narrow street lined
with shops and restaurants.
The Hokuba Valley is one of the longer train journeys from Tokyo (3hr 25min by limited
express, with an awkward platform change at Matsumoto) but well worth the effort.
Naeba
Naeba, in Niigata prefecture is Japan's ultimate ski "factory" and because of
the huge numbers of skiers sometimes found on the mountain (41,000 was the record one
Sunday a few years ago) it would not be the ideal introduction to Japanese skiing for
tourists.
It is extremely popular with Tokyo businessmen because it is relatively close to Tokyo and
there are lifts open from 4.30am until llpm.
There are plenty of hotels in the area, yet some skiers sleep on the benches in the locker
rooms for a few hours and then set off to ski at 4.30am.
Naeba has 31 lifts, a substantial number of trails mainly beginner and intermediate - and
there are some good powder options.
Nozawa Onsen
Buses packed with skiers leave Tokyo before dawn for the long journey to this
attractive ski area in the northern part of Nagano prefecture.
Nozawa Onsen combines a delightfully traditional ski village with good skiing and - as the
word Onsen denotes - hot springs.
It has 32 lifts and a good variety of terrain: in the right conditions there is good
powder skiing at the top of the area (reached by a five minute gondola ride) and some
attractive tree-lined beginner slopes lower down.
There is also night skiing available.
Shiga Kogen
Shiga Kogen, which co-hosted the 1998 Nagano winter Olympics with Happo One, is a
microcosm of Japanese skiing. It is an extraordinary patchwork quilt of small ski areas -
22 in all, sharing 75 lifts which, rather like a Japanese version of the Portes du Soleil,
can be visited on skis in a day or two at the most. But do not expect too much in the way
of challenging skiing.
Shiga Kogen is reached from Tokyo (Ueno station) by limited express on the Shin-etsu line
to Nagano (just under three hours) followed by another train journey of 45 minutes to
Yudanaka and a bus ride.
Zao
The mountains of Japan's central highlands and the Japan Alps are numerous, and if you
include the more remote and less crowded slopes of Hokkaido, Japan has an estimated 600
ski "areas" (many very small, mostly medium sized) of which perhaps only 20 have
an international flavour.
Of these Zao, in the north-east of Honshu in Yamagata prefecture - a three-hour journey
from Tokyo, followed by a 45minute bus drive - is recognised as one of the best.
As well as an astonishing number of lifts for a Japanese resort (42), Zao has all the
prerequisites that western skiers imagine they will find in the Japan Alps: hot springs,
night skiing and juhyo (tree monsters)! These are not demons that live in the trees, but
the trees themselves that become so thickly coated with ice and snow that they form
surreal, ghostly shapes.
Forty per cent of the slopes are considered easy skiing, with just 20 per cent designated
expert terrain.
