ARAI SNOW RESORT — Attraction in Myoko

This "resort" clearly has a lot of money dumped into it's construction, but it feels like the developers don't know much about ski resorts. The dining options are absolutely atrociously bad. The lodging prices are high, although true resort areas like Niseko are still higher, the lifts are achingly slow, the gondolas have rails instead of seats and the chairlifts don't have foot rests although they do have covers (which I could do without), and the resort is located in a blind valley with no other services and a 20+ minute shuttle ride to town that only runs from mid-morning to early evening and drops you at a shinkansen station that is halfway between two towns and close to nothing. On the plus side it does snow a lot there (they claim most in Japan but given the latitude and altitude, it can be wet and not powdery), and the terrain has some steeps and good tree skiing. Unfortunately, like many resorts in Japan it is small and does not have a great deal of vertical relief. The money wasted here wouldn't feel so painful if it at least had reasonable food but it is truly bad. You are basically their prisoner as long as...

First time skiing in Japan but this was very impressive. Copious amount of snow for late December, about 200+ inches which is good even by Colorado and California standards. Powder is not Utah dry but decent with great powder tree skiing at the top. First day was heavy snow, a bit windy, but still a lot of fun in the powder. 2nd day was sunny, beautiful views and great fun through the trees. Given the Christmas season there were no crowds, no line waits at all- almost not one time, and challenging runs. Some reviews claim the resort requires advanced skills to handle the top, but that really is relative. If you ski or board more than 5 days a year you will have no problem with the upper terrain. The only tricky part is getting used to powder skiing for those used to skiing harder snow. Take the Gondola to the top. This will be the best skiing. Base area is smaller but has the normal ski resort food, drink and retail. Easy to get to from Tokyo- Shinkansen to Jōetsumyōkō, and free shuttle (with prior online...

Skiing in mid December There has been 100-180cm of snow but they still won't open most of the runs. All ski instructors believe they should be open with the amount of snow but nothing has opened up in 4 days we've been here. They haven't even prepared the lifts for these "almost open" runs. Unfortunately I get the feeling that it's to save costs by running only one lift. Pretty disappointed as some of us were hoping to learn (especially with the advertisment of so many green runs) and all that is available are some pretty challenging blues. I understand that a lot of this is condition dependant, but this feels like cost cutting, hence the review.

That said, the 2 blues that are open are incredible, the powder is lovely, snow is dry and crisp, and the individual staff members are lovely. The lessons, while expensive, are good quality and cater to all levels.

Attached is an image of the snow cam at the closed lift with no...