Aomori Spring Facilities

Aomori Spring has very good facilities and services that are more than adequate to cater for the small number of day trippers and the limited number of overnight guests (as there is only one hotel).

Aomori Spring Ski School

Aomori Spring has a small number of snowsports instructors that speak fluent English, so you definitely want to pre-book any lesson requirements.

The Aomori Spring ski school offers group lessons for ages 4 and up, but there needs to be a minimum of 4 people for the lesson to proceed, so the default is private lessons (the prices aren't too scary). Private lessons are also available for ages 3-5. In addition to standard snowboard lessons, there are also Burton Learn to Ride packages that are inclusive of rental gear.

Aomori Spring also offers park and pipe camps.

Facilities for Children

This is no child care or babysitting available at Aomori Spring.

There are some outdoor activities for children including tubing, zipfy (a luge-type toboggan), air trampoline, and mini snowmobiles.

The hotel has a games room that's ideal for big kids, with table tennis and computer games. There is also a cinema room.

Ski and Snowboard Rental

Equipment rentals are available at the gondola station building. The ski and snowboard equipment is of a reasonable standard, from brands such as Burton, Head, Salomon and Atomic. If you're looking for performance or powder specific equipment, then you'd best lug it from home (as most powder hounds would).

There are no alpine touring ski rentals, whilst an avalanche beacon, shovel and probe kit can be rented out to guests partaking in a guided backcountry tour.

The shop also rents ski clothing such as jackets, pants and gloves. Other rental equipment includes snowshoes, toboggans, snowscoots, and ski blades.

Eating On Mountain

In addition to the restaurant and café inside the slopeside Rockwood Hotel, there are a couple of eateries on-mountain for lunch or snacks.

The Ramen House is located next to Quad lift 1 and the halfpipe. It feels classically Japanese with the benches and seats that surround the kitchen in the middle, so you can watch your ramen being prepared. In addition to a beautifully spicy ramen and standard miso and soy ramen, you can also get gyoza. Also classically Japanese, they only accept cash.

The Mountain Café at the base gondola station is a fairly typical Japanese ski resort cafeteria with the usual suspects on offer for lunch. And fairly typical for Japan, you'll need to pay cash.

At the base of the terrain park is Aspen House, which offers drinks, hot dogs, hamburgers and other fast food. It's only open during events and other peak times.

Banking Facilities

As is somewhat common at Japanese ski resorts, there is no ATM, so come prepared. Hotel guests can use credit card for English ski school and other purchases, however for day trippers buying lift tickets or getting equipment rentals, you'll need to pay with cash.

Shopping

A little bit of shopping is available at Aomori Spring, but arrive with all the ski/snowboard equipment and clothing you think you'll need, because you won't be able to buy much once you get there.

Inside the Rockwood Hotel is a lovely shop that sells some Burton clothing and ski and snowboard accessories such as helmets and gloves from other brands. There are also some nice Aomori Spring souvenirs and logowear such as Burton hoodies, and other giftware. This shop differs to the many ski resort gift shops you may find elsewhere in Japan, as it only sells very upscale expensive gifts, and not the usual Hello Kitty and other tacky knickknacks.

There is also a basic ski and snowboard store in the Atco hut adjacent to Quad 1 that sells ski and snowboard accessories, once again with a focus on Burton gear.