Ski Holidays Japan

There are over 500 ski resorts in Japan, but by European standards and with the exception of half a dozen these are all micro-resorts, and by that I mean absolutely tiny.

The largest resort in Japan is Shigakogan with 83km of piste in Nagano, followed by Hapo One, hakuba with 52km of piste in Nagano, and then the most famous for us Brits in Niseko with 52km of piste in Hokkaido. However, the stats are somewhat meaningless, in that you don’t travel all that way to Japan to ski the pistes really. This is a place for powder hounds to hone their skills in the amazing open ski fields Japan has to offer.

The northern island of Hokkaido is the place to go for champagne powder, it is the mecca of asian skiing. Although the Japanese season isn’t that long it gets tremendous snowfalls and 5-7m of snow is not unusual. The best time tends to be skiing during January and early February for the optimum experience. Niseko offers easy access to off-piste skiing in the powder but in addition it has amazing snow-cat operations and heli-skiing facilities – this is the place to go to.

Skiers travelling to Japan usually combine their winter sports holiday with nights spent in Tokyo and other cities, travel on the bullet train, and an all in cultural experience.

Flights are used into Narita 70 km outside of Tokyo and Sapporo’s Chitose airport.

Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan.