Yuzawa Kogen Ski Resort — Attraction in Yuzawa

(Visited February 14 2025) - where do I begin? I was honestly not expecting to like the place that much. For starters, as someone who has never seen snow or even gone to a ski resort, I did a lot of research before deciding on Yuzawa Kogen vs Gala Yuzawa and I’m glad I did! The place can be chaotic. We arrived at the ski resort around 10:45am and it took us an hour to finally rent our equipment get dressed and enter. A few things

1. the rental area is on the 1st floor, you fill out a form and decide what you need ( we were hella unprepared so had to get most of the stuff - 6 adults, 1 toddler)

2. they don’t rent out beanies or snow gloves so make sure you bring them along! They have them up at the mountains after the ropeway lift but it’s pricey and for adult size. Think you can buy them outside the resort as there are numerous areas that sell or rent ski equipment

3. the rental gear are so clean. All the outfits are fitted with a plastic over it for hygienic purposes

4. the ropeway run a certain time .. there are special places to put your ski equipment

5. the top of the mountain is spectacular. There is a small cafe (coffee , hot chocolate and basic snack) that also sells gloves etc and there’s an Italian restaurant but it was super packed when we enquired. There is another restaurant further up the mountain but we didn’t go that far up.

6. not sure if it was a lucky day but there was barely anyone at the top. There were ppl each time the ropeway arrived but they would ski down. Nevertheless the place is so gorgeous and it snowed a bit while we...

Great resort to enjoy with entire family. Very close to Echigo-Yuzawa Shinkansen station 5-7 mins on foot. I believe there is a shuttle available as well. I recommend walking. If you are driving there is a parking lot 1 block away.

There are a lot of equipment rental places and 1 in the building as well. The one in the resort gets busy real fast, if you do not like to queue for long either reach real early or rent from one of the shops outside.

Kids: There are 2 kids play area or “snowland”, the one below is decent size and have enough room for kids of all ages to enjoy scooters, slides etc.

Slope: Take the rope way to get on the top, view is very nice. In terms of slopes there are a few, mostly gentle slopes for beginners and intermediate skill levels. For experts not training kids :) it might get boring. If you are in this group then get a 3-mountain pass. Yuzawa Kogen is connected to Gala which is connected to Ishiuchi Maruyama ski resort. It takes almost all day to try all the slopes in these 3 ski resorts.

Food: There are a few within the ski resort and many around the resort in Yuzawa...

Beautiful Snow sightseeing destination near Tokyo. We visited on 5 January, 2023. We did not ski. We bought the ticket for Ropeway and Snow Park (¥3200per). There are also other ticket options. I have attached a photo of ticket price.

Under the Ropeway and Snow Park ticket, we could spend time on the park playing with snow. The park is just beside the ground ski learning area. There are play equipment freely available at park- slide and sledge car for racing. Though the park seem childish, we had lots of fun.

The ropeway takes one station up to the observatory. Amazing view from there! But it was colder than the ground area and no activity to do. Overall, if you want to enjoy snowfall and good winter getaway even without skiing, this place is highly...