Marunuma Kogen looked good on paper with attractive looking stats such as the elevation, the aspect, and a gondola, and the topographical outline also looked appealing for powder hounds. But in practice, there wasn’t much appeal for powder hounds, which with hindsight was somewhat apparent on google maps. Like most Japanese ski resorts, Marunuma Kogen sits below the treeline and the trees were really densely vegetated. We scored an epic fail for off-piste skiing which was magnified somewhat by our amazing experience at Oze Iwakura the day before.

Even the on-piste advanced skiing was a waste of time because 2 out of the 3 runs were closed, and in classic Japanese style, there was no apparent reason for why they would be closed (we assume it was a lack of active avalanche management).

Of course, like anywhere Marunuma Kogen had its merits and we could see why lots of beginner and intermediate Tokyo-ites would want to descend upon the place to enjoy the nice quality snow on the groomed runs. And thankfully our experience didn’t set us back too much. We visited on a Monday which was ladies day and for only 3,500 yen I scored a lift ticket, 1,000 yen lunch voucher and 200 yen drink ticket. Despite the great deal, it was surprising that the ski resort was reasonably populated for a Monday, so I’d hate to think what it’s like on the weekends.

More of our thoughts on the pros and cons are outlined on the Marunuma Kogen overview page, and also see the Japanese ski resort ratings to see how we scored Marunuma relative to other ski resorts.
See our video here