Road Tripping to Score Japow
People interested in Japan powder skiing often ask our opinion on the best ski resort for chasing the highly renowned Japow. It’s a tricky answer because whilst we can identify many Japanese ski areas or resorts that are rave worthy as
hidden powder gems, we find that they only keep us entertained for a day or two before we want to move on. So true powder hounds should be thinking more in terms of Japow regions, rather than the
best individual Japan ski resorts. Road tripping is the best way to score Japan powder.
You can get a
rental car with an easy to use English GPS and drive around Japan, so if you have a good nose for sniffing out powder and other route-finding skills, some snow safety nous, and don’t mind moving hotels frequently, then a DIY road trip opens up fantastic Japan powder skiing opportunities. If you find the resources on this website helpful and you’d like to thank us, you could consider booking your accommodation via our website.
Or an ideal way to explore the best Japan ski regions is on a multi-resort
Japan ski tour where a guide drives you around and takes you to the finest Japan powder skiing spots.
Best Japan Ski Areas / Regions for Powder Skiing
Central Hokkaido Powder Skiing
The region of
Central Hokkaido is a pretty obvious one for powder skiing and riding. Any Japow is generally fantastic, but Central Hokkaido is top of the pops when it comes to the ultimate snow quality. This region is pretty well known these days, so getting in-bounds freshies at some of the high profile ski resorts is becoming more difficult, but it’s still easy enough at some of the lesser known ski areas. Or combine lift-accessed riding with a bit of ski touring/split-boarding or full backcountry, and the world is your oyster.
Two areas that you could use as a base are
Furano (
Furano Accommodation) and
Asahikawa (
Asahikawa hotels), with the latter also being good to explore northern Hokkaido ski areas (see below). See the
Central Hokkaido skiing page for info on road distances to the ski areas from Furano and Asahikawa. You could also use
Tomamu or
Sahoro as a base for a few days, or book hotels at the last minute (through us hopefully!) at
Asahidake or
Kurodake if the weather looks like it will be kind.
You can DIY road trip these areas, but having a guide is ideal especially at areas like Asahidake (there are lots of flat spots) and Kurodake (it could be easy to get cliffed out), and guides are knowledgeable about where to go depending on storm patterns or when the winds are raging and when ropeways can close, or when Kurodake may be open generally. And backcountry touring is so much easier with a guide. If you want a guide, this should be booked sooner rather than later.
Otaru Hokkaido
Otaru is a seaside town so the nearby ski resorts have coastal snow, but cold temperatures tend to keep the powder very dry. What sets the Otaru region apart as a Japan powder skiing destination is the massive volumes of snowfall. For example,
Kiroro Ski Resort cites a statistic of 21 metres of snow per season and
Sapporo Kokusai is also renowned for big snow volumes. In addition to the high profile Kiroro, the Otaru area includes some lesser known ski areas and small lower elevation ski resorts.
One stand-out feature of the town is the good value
Otaru accommodation. See the
Otaru overview for road distances to nearby ski areas. Or you could stay in a
Sapporo hotel if you wanted more nightlife.
Northern Hokkaido
Dohoku aka northern Hokkaido has some geographic cross-over with Central Hokkaido. The city of Asahikawa is the main hub and you can see the road distances to various ski areas on the
Asahikawa overview. This zone gets lots of snow and it’s cold, so the snow quality can be fantastic, even at the low elevation ski areas. The ski areas range from well known powder skiing spots to up-and-coming ski areas, to tiny little ski areas with just one or two lifts.
You could use Asahikawa as your main base, and
Asahikawa hotels are very reasonably priced. You could also venture further north for a couple of nights to stay in accommodation near
Piyashiri. If you’re really up for a backcountry touring adventure, you could head up to
Rishiri Island.
Northern Tohoku – Aomori and Iwate
The northern Tohoku area is on the cusp of being fully discovered so get there ASAP. This region incorporates the
Iwate ski resorts and the
Aomori ski areas and you could also link in the Akita ski areas (see below). Depending on how many ski areas you want to hit up, you may need to pick multiple lodgings to base yourself. In Iwate, bases could include
Morioka City,
Hachimantai, Shizukuishi, Amihari or Appi. See the
Iwate skiing page for more information on resort locations and road distances and accommodation options.
In
Aomori Prefecture you could base yourself at the
Aomori Spring hotel for a few days, although Hakkoda is 66km away so you might also want a couple of nights stay at
Hakkoda. You’ll absolutely want to have a guide at Hakkoda.
Minakami Gunma
Minakami in the
Gunma Prefecture is relatively undiscovered by international skiers and snowboarders. For backcountry enthusiasts, your main goal is Tenjindaira, which we rate for the
best skiing in Japan for powder hounds, but you need weather on your side for Tenjin. For backup days there are a few other good powder chasing destinations within driving distance (
Minakami ski areas and
Yuzawa ski areas) that can be explored as part of a
Tenjindaira Backcountry Tour.
Katashina Gunma
Moving slightly east in the
Gunma Prefecture is a zone of ski resorts that don’t see a lot of gaijin traffic. This region is not renowned for getting the same massive dumps as the ski resorts further west, but the upside is that the Gunma powder (ie Gun Powder) is lighter.
Oze Iwakura is the main ski area to hit up, and there are other smaller
Katashina ski areas that are fun for a day.
Nagano/Niigata
Nagano is potentially the most popular district for skiing in Japan with lots of big names such as
Nozawa Onsen and
Hakuba, so it seems an unlikely choice as one of the best Japan powder skiing zones. And just over the prefectural border is the popular
Myoko Kogen in Niigata.
However in
Nagano Prefecture and the Niigata area west of Nagano City, there are small relatively unknown ski resorts along with some that are moderately trafficked, and a huge plus for this ski region is the very high concentration of resorts.
There are various
Nagano snow tours or you could do your own road trip. Good areas to base yourself could include
Madarao,
Yudanaka and
Shibu Onsen, and
Myoko Kogen. On your road trip you could also include a few days of
guiding of the famed Hakuba backcountry.
Niseko Region
Niseko seems a very questionable spot to make the list for the best Japan powder skiing regions, considering that it’s the most popular Japanese ski resort where the in-bounds and sidecountry powder is chewed up rather quickly. Even the once highly coveted nearby ski resorts of Rusutsu and Kiroro (and those near Otaru) have gained somewhat in popularity. Nevertheless, the
Niseko area has so much going for it for powder hounds. Combine a bit of resort skiing at Rusutsu and Kiroro, some riding off the back of Niseko, other Niseko backcountry touring, and some Niseko cat skiing, and your Japow appetite should be adequately satiated.
Ideally you’d get together your own group for a customised multi-day tour of the area (
send us an email if you want some advice on this) and there are also guided day tours and group resort-based multi-day trips.
Aizu
The
Aizu region sits at the southern end of Tohoku in the Fukushima Prefecture. This used to be a good powder chasing area, but recent years have seen inconsistent snow quantity and quality compared to Tohoku ski resorts further north. This is probably a good zone to leave until the last minute, and head there on a road trip if the snow conditions are looking great.
Yamagata
Yamagata Prefecture is ideal for those that really want to get off the beaten track. The prefecture scores an abundance of snow and is up there as one of the snowiest, if not the snowiest, region in Japan. The region offers up a mix of experiences including backcountry touring on the mighty Mt Gassan, snowcat assisted touring,
Zao Onsen which is a mainstream ski resort, and little unheard of ski areas that may be mellow but are untapped.