Snow in Karuizawa

Hi guys, i need information,
me and my wife are planning to travel to japan this nov30 until dec9 2014. One of the main reason is to experience snow in japan. At the beginning we were planning to go to niseko until i came across this place called karuizawa and naeba/kagura. We were really interested since it is pretty close from tokyo thus save time and money.

My questions are, is there gonna be any snow in the beginning of dec in karuizawa or naeba/kagura? We dont want to ski or anything

I realize this place is not as good as niseko to experience snow in term of size and powder quality but how these place rate compare to niseko? Are there any other alternative places?

If someone answer that i have to go to niseko to experience the best of snow, i really dont mind going.

Thank you so much before. Any answer would be much appreciated. Good day

Karuizawa usually has no natural snow until later in December. Even then, Karuizawa often doesn't get a lot of natural snow.

Naeba/Kagura is quite different. Kagura gets a lot of natural snow, sometimes as much or more snow than Niseko (but mainly at the top), since it is a lot higher than Niseko.
I'd say there is a 50/50 chance there will be some snow to see at the top half of Kagura at that time of the year, but it would be a better bet to go to Niseko.

It's too early to visit any ski resorts for skiing between late Nov and early Dec.
Karuizawa prince hotel ski resort opens on 1 Nov normally. This is because the resort makes artificial snow by the machine. Karuizawa area has only limited snow fall days a year(with very little snow).
Niseko ski resort has no snow machine, thus they have natural snow but the season may vary depending on weather and temperature conditions. They normally open around 10 Dec.
Snow might fall in late Nov in Hokkaido, but they get melted by lunch time. The temperature is still too high to keep snow in Nov.

Karuizawa is a great town to visit, and you are right, it is very close to Tokyo - only an hour away. I actually thought it was a lot better than it is rated on this site, though maybe that we because we had such an excellent time. We were just there a few days (recommend Tsuruya ryokan, it is great and also caters to novices to the ryokan/onsen experience do it is brilliant for first timers). Apparently they had a lot of snow this year well into February. It is essentially on the same line to Nagano which is only a short distance from Hakuba. Hakuba usually has snow by the end of November, and is apparently nice if you can tolerate all of the Australians (I'm one, so I can say that). http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6090.html

So I'd recommend an overnight stay at Karuizawa, then back on the shinkansen to Nagano then on the bus from Nagano to Hakuba. You can also get from Karuizawa to Hakuba via Matsumoto. That is quite a nice train ride too on the wideview. Matsumoto is a nice town with a great castle full of armour and guns and other boy stuff.

Thank you sandy, tokyofriend48, lazy pious for all your answer. It is really helpful.

Unfortunately i cant change my travel date to better suit our needs. So i guess i have to stick with niseko and hope it is gonna be snowing when i get there around the first week of dec.