Skiing Japan: The BEST Resorts in NAGANO

Skiing Japan: The BEST Resorts in NAGANO

Is there such a thing as too much powder? And if so, where can you find it? Spoiler alert, the answers are yes, and as we’ll see, more than in just one place, because this time we’ll be taking a closer look at various resorts surrounding Honchu City of Nago. So whether you want to explore multiple resorts or just stay at one or two specific ones, this video should give you the insights you need to make the best decision based on your preferences for skiing, accommodation, and general vibe. Personally, I love Nago. It’s not just an ideal hub to visit nearby resorts, but also a great place to hang out and experience the culture and the food. The resorts we’ll be talking about are roughly an hour’s drive from the city, which means especially for powder hunters, you’re in an excellent spot, as the snowfall can vary at each resort despite their general proximity. And if you don’t like driving in snowy conditions, this video should still be useful as it’ll give you an overview of which places are worth staying at for multiple nights. So, pour yourself a cup of Japanese plum wine. Yes, I brought back Tetra Packs from my last trip. And let’s dive right in. Let’s start with the obvious. Hakuba in many ways the honcho equivalent of Nco. There are some important differences though. While NCO consists of four connected resorts, Hakuba offers a staggering 10 resorts. However, only two pairs are actually connected. There’s a free shuttle that goes to all of them, and many hotels might offer a private shuttle as well. Depending on where you stay, though, it might still be more convenient to have a car to get around, especially because there’s not much of a downtown near the train station, so hotels, bars, and restaurants are kind of spread out. If you have the money, there are very nice hotels and lodges offering ski in, ski out. But if you stay at one of the more budget friendly options, you’ll probably have to do some commuting, which can be annoying on powder days. As for the skiing, Hakuba definitely deserves the hype due to its high and steep terrain, which is actually kind of unusual for Japan. Hapo Ona is probably the most popular out of the 10 with a vertical drop of over 1,000 m, which is a different number in feet. Why do you always have to do this? It also offers amazing back country, but of course, its popularity comes at a price as it can get rather crowded. And speaking of price, 8day pass for the whole valley will cost you 9,700 yen. If you are an Epic passholder, you can actually get five consecutive days for free, which is quite a substantial saving from which you can buy a lot of umeshu. On the rocks is the best, by the way. If you stick to just one resort, it’s maybe like 1,500 yen less for the day. Just be careful when you go to one of the connected areas like Cortina and Nordic as the cheaper pass will only work for one of the respective areas. Cortina is actually great for tree skiing. I went in 24 and 25 and had a lot of fun each time. I’ll definitely come back for more despite the lift lines and the drive from Nagono taking around an hour 20 as Cortina is the farthest resort in the valley. I’ll soon do a separate video about Cortina explaining how to access the best zones. So, please subscribe if you don’t want to miss it. There’s actually a whole bunch of new Japan videos dropping this fall. While my past videos were a bit more general, future ones will be more resort specific. They’ll go up in the members area first, so check that out if you don’t want to wait. At the moment of filming this video, there are already two videos for you to discover. I’ve also set up a new website at skiacrossjapan.com where all my videos are sorted either by topic or geographically. Additionally, you can find out more about private consulting for your next trip. And there will be a full Japan ski guide coming out this fall as well, which you can get at a discount if you are subscribed to the Slippery Slope newsletter. I’m also considering offering a small number of private tours for small groups this coming winter. If that’s something you might be interested in, feel free to send me a message through the website and you’ll be at the top of the list. Okay, but now let’s check out one of the lesserk known resorts, kind of the opposite of Hakuba, Seek Onen. With a vertical drop of 310 m, that’s a,000 ft. Welcome. A twoerson chair and a single chair. You might be wondering why the [ __ ] you should go there in the first place, but on a pow day and kind of only on a pow day, this is such a cool little resort. Being over 100 years old, it’s considered not just the oldest resort in all of Japan, but also one of the snowiest ones. It’s still completely familyrun, including the ski lift and the little restaurants. And you can get a cheap day pass with a lift and lunch combo. You kind of need a car to get there and you also want to be very early on a pow day to snatch the limited parking and get in line. On less snowy days, you’ll probably have the resort more or less to yourself. On a pow day, ski the stuff near the chairlift first and once that’s tracked, head to the ridge on the lookus left. You can drop down the front, which takes you straight back to the bottom chairlift, or you can drop into the back, which is relatively tight tree skiing and ends in a gully with a little stream going through. Depending on conditions, it can be a bit sketchy and it’s easy to get stuck, especially on a snowboard. So maybe don’t be the first person in there. It’s best to kind of work your way up from the front so you know what you’re dealing with. The town itself is quite small, but it is possible to stay there if you don’t mind the somewhat secluded vibe. Otherwise, there are plenty of other options to stay in the Myoken area, which also features three other resorts besides Seek Onen. If you want to be close to the slopes and restaurants, your best option is probably Akakura. However, the ski hill there isn’t particularly steep, so it’s more for beginners really. Same goes for the nearby Igotyra resort. If you’re looking for something a little bit more advanced, check out Sugi Nohara with a vertical drop of 1,124 m or 44,252 in. So, even more than Hapo On. However, it’s not crazy steep either, so there’s not a lot of expert skiing and I also couldn’t find much good tree skiing. However, the groomers are pretty fun and there are also a bunch of cute restaurants on the hill. So, if you are an intermediate to advanced rider, Sugino Nohara will be perfect for you. Still, I do want to go back there though to tour from the top of the hill to Mount Myoko, which some locals recommended. Also, the whole area of Myoku Kogan is really lovely and still very Japanese. Despite it being close to Nagono, I actually spent two nights at a small lodge there, which I really enjoyed. From Yoko, it is also only a 30-inut drive to Larry, one of my favorite resorts, which I visited multiple times in both 2024 and 2025. Lot is one of those hotel resorts that was built in the 80s and that almost went forgotten after. But about 10 years ago, it got an overhaul and now it is back in business and is actually a really nice hotel to stay. As shuttle options to get there are extremely limited. You definitely want a car for this one. The tree and off-piece skiing in Latte is really great and the trees are widely spaced and the off-piece is patrolled, meaning various sections will be opened once they have been cleared by ski patrol. When I went in 2024, it was so stormy and there was so much snow that many of the good areas stayed closed, but I still had a great time skiing under the top quad. Coming back in 2025, more areas opened, which resulted in one of the best ski days of my trip. The resort is easy to navigate as you’ll always end up at some cat track or groomer again. The top zone was particularly fun. You do have to hike out a little bit, which might take 20 minutes or more, but in return, you’ll get a really long powder run. Quick list of pro tips. The restaurant on the hill isn’t great and kind of overpriced, so you might want to bring lunch from 7-Eleven on your drive over. There are lockers up there for you to store it. That being said, the bar at the bottom of the gondola serves a mean matcha latte, so check that out. And yeah, there’s also beer. God, I love beer. The ski out from midstation to the base is really flat and you definitely don’t want to go down that run before it’s groomed or it’ll take you forever. On pow days, be early and buy the VIP ticket which lets you go up half an hour earlier and also use the VIP lane at the chairlifts all day long. You can get a discount if you book online. However, I wouldn’t do that on stormy days as you want to be sure that the top quad is running. Otherwise, skiing there won’t even be worth it in my opinion. If you do go on a regular sunny day, buying the economy lift pass online in advance does kind of make sense though. And while staying overnight at L isn’t cheap, non- hotel guests can still use their onson for about a,000 yen and it’s a really nice onson. So definitely recommend it. Like NCO L is part of the icon pass. So again, possible money saver. I’m assuming it’ll just be the economy tickets though. Not sure how it works if you want to upgrade to VIP. Next up, we have Shika Kogan, Japan’s largest and also one of the highest resorts, reaching a top elevation of 2,37 m or 2,523 yds. Oh, [ __ ] man. I can’t [ __ ] take it anymore. Several Olympic events were held here in 1998. And given its size, it’s not surprising that you have plenty of groomers to choose from, ranging from easy to steep. Therefore, this might be an ideal place for families or groups with varying abilities. I only skied there for a day and didn’t really see much expert skiing though. There were definitely some tree zones that looked interesting, but one day wasn’t enough time to properly explore. If you’re there for multiple days, I think you’ll definitely be able to find some off-piece and probably don’t have to fight much for the powder either. Personally, I’m not sure if I’ll necessarily go back. It just doesn’t fit my type of skiing. There also is not much of a town, rather a bunch of hotels spread out, most of which seem kind of antiquated. Despite that, when I checked on Booking.com earlier, I couldn’t find many options. So, not sure what’s going on there. If you’ve ever been to Shika Kogan or stayed there overnight, please tell me more about it in the comments. I’d love to hear about your experience. The good news is that you don’t need a car to get there, and there are various bus and shuttle options from Nagono and elsewhere. So, if you stayed up there for the week, you could even go visit Nago on one of your down days, as well as the snow monkeys, which are actually super close. If you prefer doing your trip without a car, check out Nago Snow Shuttle, as they offer transfers between resorts. For example, there’s one from Shika Kogan to Madaro Kogan, which is the next resort I want to show you. Mauo is connected with Tangram and together they make up a decent midsized resort with a vertical drop of 520 meters. What looking at the trail map we can see that there are actually a number of official tree skiing areas plus the unofficial ones which of course you should never go into. And indeed the tree skiing there is quite fun. When I went in January 2024, there wasn’t much of a base yet, which meant lots of shrubs still. Like really a lot. Lots of bush. Make two good turns and more bush. But normally they should be covered, which means the tree spacing is quite decent. There are hotels and restaurants up there and some rians nearby. So ski in, ski out is possible. Driving from Nago will take you about an hour, but if you stay in Moko Kogan, it’s only like 20 minutes, so easy to go for the day. I didn’t go in 2025, but definitely want to go back. It had a very relaxed atmosphere and wasn’t really crowded, even on a bluebird pow day. Yes, the lifts aren’t super modern, but since it’s not busy, it didn’t really bother me. Our final resort has a bit of everything and is also one of my favorites, though it has gotten more and more crowded in recent years. I’m talking about Nosawa onen, an Onson town indeed, as you have thermal water running throughout the city and there are little bass houses scattered all over town. I find the town very unique and therefore I think it’s worth staying for at least a couple of nights. There are a lot of bars and restaurants to choose from, which makes it one of the few Japanese resorts that actually offer proper night life and even uprisk. I also like that it’s not completely westernized as there are still many Japanese-run businesses. So, kind of nice compromise between Miyoken and Hakuba. But, as I said, it’s fairly busy, at least the town, not so much the resort, as it has a new 10person high-speed gondola and a good amount of terrain. So you hardly ever have to wait in line. We have a vertical drop of 1,085 m. So around 5.4 furlongs. I’m sure my American viewers will know that one furlong is 220 y or an eighth of a mile. Smart ass [ __ ] What is also great is that you can just walk to the ski lift or take a very short bus ride. Getting to Nuzawa by public transport is also easy. Actually, with everything being kind of tight, it can be tricky to find parking in town if you stay overnight. There aren’t many hotels, so you’ll have to be okay with staying at a traditional inn where you sleep on tatami mats on the floor. Usually, it comes with a private toilet, but without a shower, as everyone just washes up at one of the many onins. Anyway, lift tickets are 7,300 yen, and the mountain really has something for everyone, whether you’re a beginner or expert. There’s good glad skiing right under the top chair lifts and some nice slack country on the Locus right. It’s technically out of bounds, so patrol doesn’t really care if you go in there, but if something happens, it’s your own responsibility. There are some steep pitches in there which can definitely slide, so don’t go in there without backcountry gear. There will be a separate video about Nuzawa later this year, so just [ __ ] subscribe already. I promise I’ll never make jokes about Imperial units ever again. You’re such a liar. If you want a similar video about Northern Honchus or Hokkaido ski resorts, please let me know in the comments. And also share your experiences below if you’ve already been to any of the resorts I mentioned or if you think there’s one I left out. Thanks for watching. Until next time, compai.

#Japan #Honshu #skiing
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
01:04 Hakuba
03:05 SkiAcrossJapan
04:01 Seki Onsen
05:25 Myoko Kogen
06:32 Lotte Arai
08:20 Shiga Kogen
10:38 Madarao
11:57 Nozawa Onsen