Skiing in Honshu

Honshu, the main island of Japan, has hundreds of ski resorts so you’ll be spoiled for choice with Honshu skiing. The Nagano Prefecture is probably the most well known for skiing in Honshu, along with Niigata, and other prefectures for skiing and snowboarding include Gunma, Iwate, and Aomori, to name a few. 

Honshu Skiing versus Hokkaido

How does skiing in Honshu compare to Hokkaido skiing? Firstly, many international visitors prefer to go skiing in Honshu because it’s often easier and cheaper to fly into Tokyo compared to Hokkaido, and once there it’s fast to get around on one of the many bullet trains.

Honshu Snow

As a general rule, it doesn’t snow as much in Honshu compared to some of the well known Hokkaido ski resorts such as Niseko, Rusutsu and Kiroro. The ski resorts near Nagano come close to the amazing snowfalls of Hokkaido. The main Nagano ski resorts have an average annual snowfall of 10 to 13 metres. A Honshu heavy hitter is Tenjindaira where it snows about 16 metres per season. It’s also exceptionally snowy at Hakkoda where there’s so much snow no one can really measure it. If it snows 8 metres per season at sea level in Aomori City, you can start to imagine how much it snows up at 1,600 metres! Other Honshu ski resorts where it snows a lot include Geto Kogen, Tazawako and Ani, and there’s Gassan that’s too snowy to open during winter.

The Honshu snow is usually not as dry and fluffy as in Hokkaido where it’s often colder.

Deep and Steep?

Most skiing in Japan is rather mellow when compared to many ski resorts in North America, Europe and New Zealand. There are of course some exceptions in Japan. When comparing Honshu and Hokkaido, more Honshu ski resorts are steeper but there is a wide variation between the ski areas. If you're looking for steep, head to Tenjindaira or the backcountry of Hakuba.

Cultural Activities

One of the benefits of a Honshu ski holiday is that you don’t just have to ski or snowboard. The Nagano area in particular offers lots of culturally interesting activities such as visiting historical onsen villages such as Shibu Onsen with traditional Japanese architecture, temple hopping, and other fascinating sightseeing.

Once in Honshu it’s also easy to do side trips or stopovers in Tokyo or the cultural eye openers of Kyoto or Kanazawa.

Honshu Ski Resorts Japan

Nagano Ski Resorts

Many of the Honshu ski resorts are within the Japanese Alps in the prefectures of Nagano and Niigata, with quite a few situated near Nagano city (northwest of Tokyo) which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics and put some of these areas on the map. Some of the main destination Nagano ski areas include:

• Hakuba consists of various ski areas and villages that are interlinked via buses.
• Shiga Kogen is a group of ski areas that are largely interconnected via the slopes.
• Nozawa Onsen is a historic hot spring and ski resort town in northern Nagano. It’s very popular, so good luck securing Nozawa Onsen accommodation.
• Myoko Kogen is a group of ski resorts located one hour north of Nagano in the Niigata prefecture. Close by is Arai.
• Madarao Mountain Resort and the interconnected Tangram are located between Nozawa Onsen and Myoko Kogen.

Yuzawa Ski Resorts

The Yuzawa ski resorts are also in the Niigata Prefecture and only 70 to 90 minutes from Tokyo on the Joetsu Shinkansen. The area is a treasure chest of ski areas with more than a dozen places to play near Yuzawa. A juggernaut with all the bells and whistles is the Naeba ski resort. Next door is Kagura ski resort which is quieter and it offers some nice backcountry.

Tohoku Ski Resorts

Tohoku, the north eastern region of Honshu, includes the prefectures of Yamagata, Fukushima, Iwate, Akita, Aomori and Miyagi. Tohoku skiing is renowned for minimal competition for the fresh powder because many foreigners haven't heard of many of the ski areas. Whilst the most powder fun can often be found by road tripping around the small ski areas, here are the some of the main Tohoku destination resorts.

Zao Onsen is an onsen (hot springs) and ski resort town near Yamagata that is famous for its snow ghosts (ice rain covered trees).

Appi is a classy ski resort that keeps discerning skiers and boarders very ‘appi! Appi is located near Morioka in the Iwate Prefecture.

Aomori Spring is also located in the very northern tip of Honshu, and is ideal for beginners, terrain park junkies, and tree skiing fiends.

Gunma Ski Resorts

The Gunma Prefecture is very mountainous and it lies to the east of Nagano Prefecture and south of the Niigata Prefecture. Most of the Gunma ski resorts sit in the northeast corner of the prefecture, and being a little further from the coast, the snow tends to be dryer and less voluminous compared to the Nagano ski resorts.

Tenjindaira is for backcountry powder hounds, and there are other Minakami ski areas that are good back-up for weather days. Oze Iwakura is a little gem for powder hounds, whilst Manza Onsen is superb for onsen hounds.

Honshu Skiing with the Family

Most of the high profile Honshu destination ski resorts have well developed facilities and a couple have an abundance of activities to keep the little folks entertained (e.g. Naeba).

Good Honshu ski resorts that tick lots of boxes for families that want group snowsports lessons are Hakuba (stay in Happo, Lower Wadano or Goryu), Nozawa Onsen, Myoko Kogen (stay in Akakura) and Madarao. These major destination resorts also have a little bit of self-contained accommodation (a westernised concept) such as apartments or houses if you book well in advance.

There are also less westernised ski resorts that are good for families. You need to be willing to pay the premium for private ski or snowboard lessons, although you may save plenty of yen on lodging and other costs at some of these less popular ski areas.

Check out the ski Japan with kids page for more information.