Kagura is famous four its deep powder snow and lenient attitude towards out of bounds skiing. There isn’t much here for a total beginner but if you’re into trees and pow then you’ll be very happy. Check out #kagurasidecountry or #kagurabackcountry for vids. PROS : great snow, not crowded, great off piste, low avalanche risk terrain, easy access from Tokyo. CONS Sometimes too deep, top of mountain occasionally closes because of too much snow, No night life, some flat areas where boarders may need to remove a foot to keep going.
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Overall a great resort with lots of side and back country. Good tree runs and relatively low avalanche risk. Biggest drawback is it takes 45 min to go from the Mitsumata parking to the no.1 quad at the top. It takes at least an hour to chair no.5 at the peak. If you go at the right time, knee and waist deep pow awaits!
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We had a week staying at the base of Kagura Mitsumata. The official review is pretty accurate - most of the mountain is a sea of green runs well suited to beginners and intermediates with a very spread out lift system. There’s only one main area off the top of the central gondola that has anything approaching a decent pitch with a few nice tree runs and the views over the lake and main range are epic on a clear day. Given the mellow slope angle, you’re likely to get bogged in anything over knee deep pow.

The top (romance) lift is now open from January 1 when the weather permits to access the back country gate - it won’t open if there’s poor visibility and only stays open until 12pm to stop people heading backcountry too late in the day. There’s a solid crew of local BC skiers and boarders who will line up at the fence waiting for this lift to open - we were the only gaijin on the lift when we visited. You need to register for the BC gate by filling out a form you get at the top of the middle gondola, then handing it to the patrol guy manning the gates no will quiz you on your gear and plans. This was the most professional approach to BC skier management I’ve seen in Japan and hopefully something other resorts will adopt over time.

The skin to the peak is 30-60mins and gives you significant access into some good but still quite mellow lines back to the gondola, and you’d be lucky to get more than 2 laps in if you’re relying on the lift to get back up. The best plan would be to stay in the BC all day u der your own power. The BC terrain is largely above the tree line and you won’t be allowed out without avy gear.

I wouldn’t bother visiting here if you’re a strong powder skier and not planning to tour the BC - you’ll be bored by mid morning on the in-bounds terrain. It’s a good destination for families with a mix of abilities. Kagura holds snow well into early May and apparently comes into its own as a ski touring destination from March onwards. Note that it does get quite crowded with locals on weekends given its proximity to Yuzawa.
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We visited Kagura as part of a Tenjin Backcountry Tour in January. The temperatures across all of Honshu had uncharacteristically risen, so Kagura seemed like a great pick considering its high elevation and good slope aspect. The snow quality was probably better than a lot of other Honshu ski resorts, but it was still a long way from being sublime.

The backcountry at Kagura was a lot of fun. The touring was relatively easy (especially compared to Tenjindaira) and it opened up lots of great lines that fed back into the ski area. The access system is a good one whereby you have to register with ski patrol and you can’t pass through the gate unless you have a working avalanche beacon. Lots of other Japan ski resorts could learn a thing or two from Kagura, that’s been a backcountry skiing mecca for an eternity.

Kagura has good elevation (and a big vertical drop) but the downside is that it takes quite a long time to get up to the top lift where all the action stems from.
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Thankfully the top lift at Kagura now opens much earlier in the season, so we had easy access to the coveted sidecountry and backcountry terrain at Kagura. The backcountry gate system was quite refreshing: good safety systems in place such as the beacon-opening gate, without having ridiculous rules in place (as found at a few other Japanese ski areas). And with just short skin lines, it was easy to source an abundance of freshies.

It was dumping with snow when we visited, which was early season in a crappy El Nino year, when some of the nearby Yuzawa ski resorts had very sparse cover. Thanks to its elevation relative to other Yuzawa ski resorts, the snow quality and cover was far superior.

See the Kagura overview page for our thoughts on the pros and cons and also see the Japanese ski resort ratings to see how we rate it against other ski areas.
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Stayed in Yuzawa on the busiest weekend of the year New Years. Skied Kagura 3 days with my 10 year old kids. Very nice terrain for snowboarding. Good pitch not too steep not too flat. Best part is everyone goes under the ropes and gets any pow in sight! We had no snow day one and found some fresh by the sides of the runs. Day 2 had 18 inches and nobody there. Amazing! Day three went under the ropes and thru the nicely spaced trees and found almost all fresh. No lines at all. Only knock is no nice restaurants on the hill but probably as good as vail in that regard. The self serve noodles were great though. All in all amazing for being 77 minutes from Tokyo. Would also recommend Koji at hop step japan to set it all up. Great English and able to get rooms everywhere. Even met us at the ski shop!
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This mountain is very cool. We were fortunate to have 20-30 cm of new snow and we were not disappointed. Even though the top chair lift was not open, our guide from Epic Ski Adventures introduced us to some of the lightest powder snow I have ever experienced. Nothing like getting face shots every turn (as a 13 year old I seem to get more of those than the adults as I am closer to the ground!).  

Had an awesome lunch on the mountain and very reasonable. The Dragondolla was amazing and we were drooling at all the powder we were unable to cut up.

Dinner at Pension Heidi the second night was incredible and Mamma san as we called her was an fantastic host. Thumbs up!
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We only had one day to explore Kagura which did not do it justice. This is actually a large mountain with a lot of varied terrain. Although well documented, the Kagura Pair Lift No 5 does not open until Feb 1 which seems a bit strange. It would easily be the best riding/skiing on the mountain when open. Would be great to get back at some time to do some detailed exploring. Once one was able to spend more time on the mountain then you would become more comfortable exploring the many tree areas. The trees are quite openly spaced on the higher reaches and with short hikes were ere able to access some nice terrain after a recent 20-30cm snowfall. This was mainly in the Pair Lift #3 and 4 areas. Generally a lot of terrain is flat/moderate vs steep that we are used to in NZ!.

We returned to Naeba on the Dragondola at the end of the day which was a highlight in itself. Given that we were later to travel to Niseko and board freshies there, I would say that the snow quality was on par with northern resorts although our experience was limited to two days in the area.

During our visit to Naeba and Kagura we encountered NO other westerners; a great way to open the trip. Access from Tokyo via train and bus was simple and efficient. Great value for money when taking into account lift prices.
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Kagura is fantastic.

I spent pretty much 60% of last season riding it and I have to say this place is much better than you might think by looking at those scores. The first thing is that the season is one of the longest in Japan. It starts early, it ends super late. I was on it in the middle of May last year and they still had a full top to bottom run. The temps were proper japanese may temperatures and yeah, it was a waterslide for a lot of it, but it was still running.

Second, the off piste lines are great fun. It's not a huge hike from the top lift, but it gives you access to a couple of ridge lines and some pretty gnarly faces.

Third, lift accessed slackcountry is exactly what this resort is all about. Patrol will not give you any aggro at all. This place is all about its slackcountry. You have lines shooting down the kagura side into some mad face shot tree riding, and then on tashiro side you have a mad open face into a tonne of little ravines and mini pipes to muck about on. When the top lift opens in late feb the area goes bananas.

Fourth, because its really not about its piste, and because the park is down in the mitsumata area, its totally uncrowded up the top around kagura. This is peak season. The rats stay in the park, the average rider heads to a more piste friendly resort, and only really the beginners on tashiro and the slackcountry lift riders are up the top playing in the trees. It all changes in march though once the park gets moved back up the hill and the other yuzawa resorts start closing down. Unfortunately this coincides with the opening of the top lift (or near abouts) and the high speed 1 lift at kagura starts getting super busy (almost 5 minute waits!).

Fifth. It gets puked on. Relentlessly. Its not a coincidence that almost everyone riding the top kagura part has some kind of powder board. I dont think theres another biggish resort in japan with a sheer disproportionate number of powder boards in one place. Even niseko has too many chancers trying to enjoy the park or the piste. Not at the top of kagura. Only powderkiddies.

What it lacks is a decent length line or a nice intermediate gradient. Its pretty soft terrain around the resort area in truth. Its why you then pop across the dragondola when you get bored and go hit up naeba for the afternoon. The two combined are great fun.
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If you’re based at Naeba it’s definitely worth heading over to Kagura for a day trip or two. Naeba can sometimes get a bit frenzied so it’s nice to escape to the serenity of Kagura. The only limitation of a day trip to Kagura is that it needs to be a reasonably quick day because of the short operating hours of the Dragondola, and because it takes a while to get to Tashiro and more time to get across to the centre of Kagura.

We unfortunately couldn’t check out the backcountry but it’s got a good reputation. It’s a shame that the best powderhound terrain at Kagura isn’t lift accessed for the major part of the season, although for those happy to hike, the upside is that freshies will be more abundant. Overall Kagura has some good off-piste skiing and good powder, but there are probably even better places in Japan to go off-piste skiing.

For more detailed ratings of Kagura and to see how it compares to other Japan ski resorts (as well as other ski resorts around the world) see our powderhounds resort ratings.
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