Ski Advice

Hello all!!

Another ski related question.....

I'm living in Tokyo for a year and would like to go skiing.

I have been advised that Niigata is the best place to visit.

I've had about 60 hours ski experience (I can parallel ski.)

I might possibly be going skiing only on my own, may for about 3-5 days (is this is relevant info)

Can people make recommendations please??
If you could advise using Pro's and Con's that would really help me decide!

Thanks in advance!

When do you go for skiing?

The easy access from Tokyo by Shinkansen is either Yuzawa(Niigata) or karuizawa(Nagano) for 90 mins.
If you like natural snow skiing then you need to visit Yuzawa. Karuizawa has artificial snow made by snow machine with night skiing available(no night skiing at Yuzawa).

My two cents:

Most of the accommodation in places like Yuzawa caters to couples, groups, families. Not sure I'd feel as comfortable there on my own.

When going on my own, I often get the Shinkansen to Nagano. Time it so I stop off around 4pm for the nighta in Karuizawa, as its pretty cheap and a good quick run out if you've not been for a while. Back on the train and stay in Nagano city in a cheap business hotel. From Nagano city you can get to Iizuna Kogen (small, but fun) or Togakushi (bigger but further) ski resorts by bus while continuing to come back and stay in Nagano city. For the bigger places in Hakuba (1.5 hours by bus), you could stay at a hostel in Hakuba - I often stay for 1 night, which is my threshold for tolerating large groups of loud Australians.

The above assumes own gear not rental. If renting staying at one place, e.g. Hakuba, is cheaper and better.

One other thing - with budget airlines like Skymark, if you book in advance, going up to Hokkaido and staying in Sapporo for 5 days ain't much difference price-wise then Nagano or Niigata.

You don't have to ski on your own....

I ski a quite a lot, 23-25 days a Japanese season. I mainly ski Nagano, Niigata & occasionally Gunma.
For longer trips, I drive my car, but for short trips I go on weekend bus trips organised by an Aussie guy. He's been doing this for maybe 4-5 years, and it's very popular with foreigners and Japanese girls. There is often so much demand that he sometimes runs 2 or even 3 buses. And you will meet lots of people, because everyone is there to meet people.