Japan - Snow Heaven

Japan is one big snow making machine. The combination of the cold winter winds which stream off Siberia and the relatively warm Japan Sea turn Japan's northern and western areas into a white wonderland come winter time. Add to this the fact that over around 70% of the country is mountainous and it gets easier to understand how there can be over 650 ski areas dotted throughout Japan.

Japan has some of the highest snowfalls in the world with some ski areas having to close for the main winter months of January and February due to too much snow. Luckily for us most areas stay open. This also means an endless supply of powder snow, refreshed on a constant basis. The snow quality too, as many long time international ski travelers will agree, is second to none. Most years lift accessed skiing is possible from November to May. This abundance of both snow and ski resorts leave most areas wonderfully uncrowded and waiting for a lift a rare experience.

At Snow Culture Tours we have worked and skied at numerous ski areas throughout Japan, big and small, north to south. This has led to an extensive knowledge of skiing in Japan and helped us sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

Here are some of our favourite resorts and the main destinations for our Nagano/ Niigata Explorer tour.

other areas

For a customized tour we can take you any where in Japan that you desire to go.

We have skiied from one end of Japan to the other and built a list of favourites. Come with us to discover the big and small resorts of Hokkaido, the relatively unknown to westerners areas of Tohoku, Fukushima and Gunma, the snow country of Niigata and even further south through Ishikawa and all the way down to Hiroshima for a combination of beautiful mountainscapes and cultural treasures.

Let us help you find your own special place.