Appi Kogen Ski Resort — Attraction in Hachimantai

This review will include the slopes and the restaurants.

Appi ski resort is the only one I know. For that it is hard for me to compare it with other ski resorts. I like it here. From what I have gathered the resort is smaller compared to European ones. But everyone I heard really thinks the snow there is some of the best they have tried. I would recommend to come after New Years Eve for a couple of reasons. During that time the slopes get quite busy, and you will have to wait to get in the lifts. Also at that time there are still many slopes closed. We are now in the third week of January and all of them are open. Including the snow park. This one is fun, with jumps and boxes, it is located at the bottom. During weekdays (at the moment), there is almost nobody on the slopes. Which gives you a lot of space to practice safely. You will find groomed slopes and a couple of ungroomed and tree runs. If you stay there for a longtime you might grow bored of the slopes. There are quite some possibilities for off-piste. There is a patrol which will actually take your pass away if caught. So it is probably better if you are using a day pass. That being said, my friend last year did a lot of off piste for weeks and never was bothered. Food wise there are 5 restaurants. Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Korean. All of them are Japanese style though. It doesn’t taste authentic. Italian one have edible pizza, but very tiny. Indian one was nothing special and rather expensive. Not much to say about the others beside the Japanese one selling ramen. That is probably the cheapest option. Taste good and the staff is nice. If you head out of the restaurant to get into the central area, you will find more food. Last year it was possible to get kebab, rather good. This year you will find Indian food. Proper Indian food. For 750Y you get a curry and a naan. Very tasty. This is the food you will also find in their restaurant located in Appikogen. Around this area you will also find stores that sell various products, food, gear,... I will attach some photos, bad quality but should give a wide sample of what you will find. The view from up there is not the prettiest I have ever seen but still, on a clear day, it’s beautiful. Enjoy...

For skiing.. Appi is great for beginners. There’s a nice and long green run that is 5.5km long which means less getting on/off ski lifts or gondola. For the intermediate/advanced, half the area is not even open (sailor run not open the entire season), so not a lot of challenging runs. In fact, it becomes a relatively small ski slope!! Onsite rental ski gear is nice and new so no problems there, and even offers 5 hour rental options.

For the hotel, yes it is a bit dated though there are options for renovated rooms. There’s option for “eco clean” or “no cleaning” which will earn you 2 x mineral water or 1000 yen vouchers if you choose not to clean your room for each day. Room itself is very big for the “Tower Suite” room that we booked with very nice view of the slope. My biggest gripe with this hotel is that it is practically a “self service” hotel. Once you are handed the room keys, you’re pretty much on your own. If you don’t ask, you will miss out on a LOT. We went during the Xmas peak period, and no one informed us to book restaurants upfront, and every restaurant you call is booked out for the entire week. The ones that don’t require reservations are too crowded or you’ll have to pay an arm and a leg for buffet food that we don’t want. Shuttle buses out to town aren’t available everyday, so you won’t always have the option to get out of town or go to specific places you want to go. It can be quite stressful. We actually settled with instant noodles one night.

This hotel is probably fine if you are well organised and plan well in advance. Even if you are the organised type, there will still be situations that you can’t plan for, e.g. buses that take you to the main train station. You can’t book those upfront. On a heavy snow day, if the bus is full, they only call backup buses when they filled up the bus. You’ll end up waiting for the next one, messing up your schedule for the rest of the day.

I can only suggest that the hotel improve on the “information” aspect to proactively tell hotel guests upfront by email before arrival or as part of checkin to avoid disappointment. There are much better options at the price point...

How is it that the lift fee is the normal price even though only one lift is open for 90% of the day. I’ve gone to other resorts in Japan and they offer nearly half off for just a few lifts being closed. ( lotte arai was 4000 yen instead of 6500 for just a few top lifts being closed. ) Very disappointing service, and non negotiable fees for an over priced ticket.

They intentionally keep only one beginner lift at the base open so they don’t have to refund all of the customers. It’s also really hard to find information on what lifts and trails will be closed. Then they don’t tell you that tickets are non refundable if you buy the ticket online. Additionally, they fully know before you purchase the ticket that nothing will be open and give no warning. It’s a flat out scam service. WILL NOT BE GOING BACK!

Snow quality and open trails were shit for advanced skiers. maybe I’d have had a different experience if I could have checked out any of the upper mountain. Judging by other reviews, it is not uncommon for them to just close all the lifts and only keep a few running. I wonder if this really is for safety measure or just for them to save some money. The lifts aren’t even that high up, and very enclose by trees. I’ve been on lifts with stronger winds and they don’t close them at other Japanese resorts.

Also not to mention, they allowed people to ride the lifts with board in hand on a lift that is directly above a ski trail. Extremely dangerous to do this if the board was dropped on someone it could cause serious injuries and slide uncontrollable down the mountain injuring many people.

Food court is overpriced, and not that great as well. Rentals are more than the lift ticket prices and they are nothing special. There are also a lot of very beginner, rude patrons. ( seeming to...