Madarao Facilities & Services

Madarao Mountain Resort has reasonably good ski resort facilities and services. Many of these are housed within the Madarao Kogen Hotel or nearby.

Madarao Ski School and Snowboard Lessons

One option if you’re looking for lessons throughout your stay is to book a Madarao lessons package inclusive of lodging and lessons. In addition to skiing or riding at Madarao, you can also head to nearby ski resorts such as Nozawa Onsen and Shiga Kogen.

In addition to a couple of Japanese Madarao ski schools, there are two international snowsports schools at Madarao. Both only have a small number of instructors, so you should pre-book any lesson requirements. Action Snow Sports has English speaking instructors. For adults and teens over 15, they offer 2 hour group lessons at 9am and 11am. Group lessons are provided for children ages 7-14 are for 2 or 4 hours in duration. Action Snow Sports also offer private lessons.

North Nagano Outdoor Sports offer group and private lessons for kids and adults. Kids ski lessons are for ages 4 and up, and snowboard lessons are from age 7. Kids lessons are half or full day. The meeting point is at North Nagano Outdoor Sport, which is a 5 minute walk down from the main ski resort base. Adult group lessons and private lessons are also on offer.

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Madarao Ski Rentals & Snowboard Hire

Shirakaba Rental is the resort owned equipment rental shop, located at the Madarao Kogen Hotel. Shirabaka has basic equipment for adults and kids, as well as a range of fat skis and performance gear. Chill Madarao near the main base of the ski resort also offers Madarao ski hire and snowboard gear for children and adults, from beginner to expert equipment. Chill Madarao offers an overnight storage service if you don’t want to lug your gear between your accommodation and the slopes each day.

A number of other accommodation providers also offer Madarao ski rentals / snowboard hire.

Facilities for Children

The Madarao Kogen Hotel offers child care for ages 1 to 5 with staff that generally speak a little English. The child care is open from 9am-12 noon and 1:30-4:30pm so you need to pick the children up for lunchtime. Day care is rather inexpensive and needs to be booked in advance.

Just below the hotel is a kids’ play area with a small slope for tubing and tobogganing, and it has a magic carpet. Use of the park attracts a small fee.

Eating On Mountain

Madarao Ski Resort has a few on-mountain options to get a feed or drink during the day. At the base area below the Madarao Kogen Hotel is Restaurant Heidi, which has a couple of take-away outlets as well as a massive cafeteria. It lacks any charm but is very family friendly and it even has a shoes-off area where you can have an afternoon nap. Or of course when in Japan you can just do as the Japanese do and have a sleep at the table!

Opposite Heidi is the smaller Trois Cinq which has a little more ambience. We once had a katsu curry there that we pegged as the best we’d ever had!

The old Banff restaurant is closed, but there is a small restaurant nearby adjacent to lift #11 where the service is incredibly slow.

If you can cope with the really slow lift, you could head up lift #1 to the Sundeck for a burger or chicken parmigiana. Not really sure why it’s called the Sundeck though as the deck is not out in the sun!

Also easily accessible from the slopes is the Shirakaba cafeteria in the Madarao Kogen Hotel, which serves up Japanese cafeteria fare.

Aki’s Pub and Café has a ski-in ski-out location near the day car park. The menu is usually reasonably small and includes pizza and amazing katsu curry.

Near the base of the #5 lift is Aki’s Burger in Tirol which serves up gourmet burgers and fries at gourmet prices.

Banking Facilities

You might find a few Japanese eateries where only cash is accepted. Some of the pensions that sell discounted lift passes only accept cash and there may even be a few staunch old pensions around Madarao that only accept cash for the accommodation. Sounds ludicrous doesn’t it?! If you’re staying at a Japanese inn, double check what the payment method is.

And as is somewhat common with Japanese ski resorts, there is no ATM at Madarao. Either arrive at Madarao armed with yen (there are ATMs at Narita Airport and Haneda Airport), or you’ll need to take the night bus down to the town of Iiyama to visit one of the ATMs at the 7-Eleven stores (there is a 7-Eleven near the train station).

Madarao Shops

Restaurant Heidi and a few of the Madarao hotels have ski-osks, selling a small range of ski and snowboard accessories. A couple of the hotels also have small ski and snowboard shops selling a very limited range of hardwear. If you need to make a substantial purchase such as outerwear (jackets, pants), hardwear (skis, snowboard, boots) or backcountry gear, you’d be better placed to do your shopping at home or in Tokyo.

The Madarao Kogen Hotel has a medium sized store selling a few ski and snowboard accessories, souvenirs, snacks, sundries, and delightfully cheap alcohol. High five for the Chu-Hi! There is also a small souvenir and gift shop in the village that sells some snacks and beers. If you need to make major grocery purchases, you’ll need to head down to Iiyama. Tsuraya near the train station is a good choice. There are also a couple of specialty shops in town.