a free ride paradise indeed with meters of snow as a base and frequent dumps!

Only 4 or 5 gaijin during my weekend visit, but the place was tracked out in a couple of hours, as it seems the locals love to ride off-piste!! It is also comparatively small, but the terrain is all open and varied. It seems that weekdays are much, much better for freshies.

It is very easy to take the public bus and shuttle, but only on weekends. Just get to Nou train station and across its corner you will see the bus stop and a number of kids waiting for the bus. Most passengers get off the bus further up, where the shuttle is waiting for visitors.
See our video here

Driving up to Charmant Hiuchi, the snow banks on the road were pretty high and it was only early season (early January). It was easy to see that this little ski area scores a lot of snow. It hadn’t snowed for a few days and considering it was just after peak Japanese holidays, it wasn’t surprising that most of the inbounds freshies had disappeared. With a little bit of fossicking, there were still a few fresh tracks left on this small but impressive hill.

After checking in with ski patrol we hit the sidecountry where the only tracks were animal tracks, until of course us powder hounds did lots of laps and left plenty of paw prints. We were pretty amazed that no one had been out there. And considering it hadn’t snowed for a few days, the snow quality was quite nice and aided by the favourable aspect.

We stayed at the Hotel Route Inn Itoigawa for a night en-route between Hakuba and Lotte Arai. The little town of Itoigawa was reasonably quiet but it had several seafood restaurants so getting a good feed wasn’t a problem.

You can check out the Japanese ski resorts ratings to see how we rated Charmant Hiuchi versus other ski areas. It scores pretty well as a powder hound destination.
See our video here

We heard a snippet about a small coastal resort and thought we would check it out. What we found was little piece of classic Japan powder paradise. Charmant Hiuchi had waist deep pow when everywhere else in Honshu was scratching for a base. Its coastal location is perfect for picking up loads of snow in cold storms from the north and west (note - low elevation means storms need to have a near sea level freezing point).
A pleasurable aspect is that free riding at Charmant is encouraged, so no one is likely to chase you down the hill for ducking a rope. Terrain is typical Japan, nothing too steep, but all cracking fun when swallowing heaps of pow - I do tend to ski with my mouth open (got the photos to prove it)!!
A comfortable hooded quad services the vast majority of the 500m vertical and the lift line is ........................ non-existent. 
Note that the last bit of the road heading up can be a bit dicey in snowy conditions. Lets face it, maybe come for a reconnaissance, but otherwise only come here when the powder is deep and road conditions are dicey. All wheel drive recommended. 



See our video here