Wadagoya — Restaurant in Yuzawa

If you are keen on getting the very first and fresh snow before anyone else and planning to go skiing in Kagura, then I can recommend you to spend the night in the mountain hut Wadagoya.||Wadagoya is a mountain hut and lunch restaurant located on 1380 m above sea level in the middle of the Kagura ski area (a 15 min drive from either Naeba or Yuzawa) and only accessible by lift. You need to bring everything you'll need for the night in a backpack (e.g. towel, toothbrush, spare clothes, pyjamas) but once there they provide dinner, futon, hot bath and breakfast. Wadagoya provides very basic sleeping conditions (a large sleeping area on the 2nd floor divided by curtains around each group) but you feel at home, the service is without remarks and it is well worth the money. You can buy drinks, have a beer, watch TV and chat with other enthusiastic skiers (mainly Japanese) by the open fire.||You need to book in advance (via Prince Hotel, that manages the hut), check in at their office behind the Matsumata ropeway (in Matsutmata) and be at the hut prior to 4pm. Once the lifts close (you need to take 3 to get to the hut from Mitsumata) ... there is no alternative way to get to the hut during winter time.||The great benefit is that it enables you to be the first one skiing in the area (7:30), at least an hour before the rest of people taking the Mitsumata or Tashiro ropeways arrive. If it is a day with powder ... you're in heaven. This since Kagura offers high altitude skiing in a wast area, especially if the no5 list is open (often only in late Feb and forward or on good visibility weekends). The trees are small at this altitude and perfect for skiing in-between. ||The ski areas Mitsumata and Tashiro (that you pass to get to the Kagura area) are though rather flat and not offering so much advanced slopes ... neither on-pist nor off-pist. Still, it's worth the effort of getting there ... especially if you are greeted in Kagura by 30cm of...

If you are keen on getting the very first and fresh snow before anyone else and planning to go skiing in Kagura, then I can recommend you to spend the night in the mountain hut Wadagoya.||Wadagoya is a mountain hut and lunch restaurant located on 1380 m above sea level in the middle of the Kagura ski area (a 15 min drive from either Naeba or Yuzawa) and only accessible by lift. You need to bring everything you'll need for the night in a backpack (e.g. towel, toothbrush, spare clothes, pyjamas) but once there they provide dinner, futon, hot bath and breakfast. Wadagoya provides very basic sleeping conditions (a large sleeping area on the 2nd floor divided by curtains around each group) but you feel at home, the service is without remarks and it is well worth the money. You can buy drinks, have a beer, watch TV and chat with other enthusiastic skiers (mainly Japanese) by the open fire.||You need to book in advance (via Prince Hotel, that manages the hut), check in at their office behind the Matsumata ropeway (in Matsutmata) and be at the hut prior to 4pm. Once the lifts close (you need to take 3 to get to the hut from Mitsumata) ... there is no alternative way to get to the hut during winter time.||The great benefit is that it enables you to be the first one skiing in the area (7:30), at least an hour before the rest of people taking the Mitsumata or Tashiro ropeways arrive. If it is a day with powder ... you're in heaven. This since Kagura offers high altitude skiing in a wast area, especially if the no5 list is open (often only in late Feb and forward or on good visibility weekends). The trees are small at this altitude and perfect for skiing in-between. ||The ski areas Mitsumata and Tashiro (that you pass to get to the Kagura area) are though rather flat and not offering so much advanced slopes ... neither on-pist nor off-pist. Still, it's worth the effort of getting there ... especially if you are greeted in Kagura by 30cm of...

Wadagoya is a must-visit place in Kagura ski area. It is a restaurant and lodge. We did not sleep there, but I assume it would be very special experience. We stopped there for a quick afternoon snack before we rushed back to Naeba on an extreme busy Saturday afternoon. The food was okay, but it's way too crowded and it's very difficult to get a table. You also have to take off your ski boots to sit on the tatami so that there are ski boots everywhere on the wet floor. I personally think it doesn't hurt to try it for once, just for the atmosphere (if you like bustling noisy places). But for convenience and comfort, I would go elsewhere for food, such as Kagura annexed to the...