We booked this tour with Waka-san and it exceeded our expectations.

After a first trip to Hokkaido and Nagano last year, we were surprised by the dominance of Australian, NZ and US nationals over the guiding companies, lodging and even bars. We found it hard to be in touch with the Japanese culture in these regions (beside the daily onsen maybe?). We were keen to come back to Japan but not so keen to use the services of these large foreign guiding companies. We therefore decided to look for a Japanese guiding company and to increase our chance of success, we focused on the lesser-known region of Tohoku. Thanks to powderhounds.com, we found the Gassan guiding company and the Tohoku tour checked all our boxes. We booked without any hesitation. Best decision we ever made.

1- Waka-san is a first-class tour planner. He is always available and reverts very quickly. This gives confidence right from the beginning. He created a highly personalised ski tour (mixed of ski touring and lift-supported BC skiing) across the region. As per our wishes, he chose very nice accommodations in Japanese-style hotels and Ryokan in cities that are worth visiting.

2- We had two guides who gave their best to fulfil our expectations. We were lucky with the conditions (fresh snow) and the guides always knew where to take us for some very nice tree lines and long runs (not so easy to find in Japan). We were a group of 4 expert skiers, and we felt that the guiding skills were always on point.

3- The Tohoku region is still well-preserved from massive ski tourism which makes it very enjoyable for those who wish to experience the Japanese culture. Small cities, small resorts, good food, very local onsens and a lot of fun exploring these mountains.

I thought about being selfish and not write a review about this tour. Tohoku is still “relatively” under the radar of the international powder skiing community and I hope it will stay like that for some more years. I would hate to see the region becoming the new Hokkaido or Nagano. But it would also not be fair to Gassan to not recognise the perfect tour planning and guiding. They made our trip unforgettable, and they really deserve this 5-star review.

This tour is for you if you want to combine Japanese-culture and powder skiing. This tour is not for you if you are used to the US/AUS/NZ guiding company style with luxury vans, apres-ski beers in a pub in Niseko or if you are not ready to put skins on and hike up to get to the lines.
See our video here