Welcome to SnowJapan.... we're glad that you found us.  On this page we're going to try and help make navigating around the site easier and point you in the right direction of the information you are looking for.

SnowJapan has been online since 1999.  Back then, the creator of the site - who is still in charge of things today - had been living in a region of Japan that got huge amounts of snow each winter (the photo to the right shows snowfall from a 24 hour period) and was amazed that there was almost no information in English about the huge winter sports scene that existed in Japan.  He started the site to try and get the word out.  The site is still run on pretty much the same concept today, although on a much larger scale.

One important thing to mention about SnowJapan is that we are totally independent.  That means that we are not trying to sell any particular region, ski resort, hotel, tour services or any other business to our readers.  In fact, we have no product to sell.  It also means that no business or organisation has any say in the way that the site is run or influences our editorial in any way.  Another thing we're not trying to do is hype "winter sports Japan" up to be something that it isn't.  Apart from the fact that we don't think it actually needs hype, that's not what SnowJapan is about.

What we are setting out to do is to bring useful and detailed information about winter sports in Japan to the world and at the same time provide a place where like-minded people can gather and have fun.

For a bit of more history, information about the site and also how to contact us, please visit our About page.

The main links on the left hand side of this page are present on every page of SnowJapan.  Those links will take you to section index pages that will usually lay out all the pages & information within that section and it should be fairly self-explanatory.

Japan has over 500 ski & snowboard 'resorts'.   (Search them here).

Some are huge 'world-class' resorts, some are tiny operations with one lift.  Some even have their own Shinkansen 'bullet' train station in the same building as the Gondola.  Some are so conveniently located that ski day trips from Tokyo are possible. To get an overview of the Japan winter sports scene, check out our Introduction to Japan Winter Sports guide.

A Map of Japan will also give you an idea of the 'layout' of Japan.

Our main Resorts Center has listings and data for every single snow resort in Japan.  But which are most popular?  You will get a good idea of which places are popular by looking at the sections of our site that have reader feedback.  Good places to try and get that information are our Resort Rankings section (new November 07) or the Resort Reviews section. 

We have also very recently added a new Resort Search functionality to the site which will let you search all of the resorts in our database by a number of criteria - including prefecture, resort name, station names as well as resort facilities.  We hope that will find be a very useful tool as well as a lot of fun.

One common question we get is "why is there more information/hotels/etc on your site in this particular resort/region"?  The main reason for more or less information on any one region is basically the popularity of that area.  Even so, our aim is to cover all Japan - not just the popular areas - and we are always keen to add more information about less well-known regions.  If you are able to help us out in that respect, please do email us.

Anyway getting back to the Resorts Center.  On that main page you'll find links to resorts in each prefecture or Japan (for example, all the resorts in Hokkaido), links to our Town Guides, Places to Stay, Maps, Resort Spotlights (introducing snow resorts in more detail), Lessons in English (places that offer ski & snowboard lessons in English), Jobs Available and Daily Reports (see below).  The Services section introduces companies that provide services in Japanese snow resort areas.

If you are going to be skiing or snowboarding in Japan, chances are that you will be looking for accommodation near the slopes.  In our Places to Stay section you will find listings of places to stay in Hokkaido, Nagano, Niigata, Gunma, Fukushima, Yamagata & Iwate.  As well as contact details, each listing has a simple online form making it easy to contact the hotels.  There is also a General Booking Request Form that you can use to easily contact the hotels.

This season we have introduced some new Town Guides that bring together various information from some of the most popular ski & snowboard towns in Japan.  Presently you'll find Town Guides on Niseko and Furano in Hokkaido, Hakuba, Shiga Kogen & Nozawa Onsen in Nagano, Yuzawa & Naeba in Niigata and Minakami in Gunma. From those Town Guides you should find lots of relevant information about those towns.  We plan to build and add to these guides over the coming months.

Our Maps section presents over 700 pages of maps.  The new Town Maps are detailed maps of some of the most popular ski resort towns in Japan and we hope that they will be useful for people wanting to visit any of those regions.  There is also an Interactive Map page for every snow resort in Japan showing exactly where they are located, as well as some other Regional Maps created for SnowJapan.

Each winter we provide detailed Daily Reports on SnowJapan.  Our exclusive Now! reports are updated each morning throughout the season and provide an independent and honest look at the weather and snow conditions.  This season a new Myoko Now! page has been added to join the existing Niseko Now, Furano Now, Hakuba Now, Shiga Kogen Now, Nozawa Now, Yuzawa Now, Naeba Now and Minakami Now.  You can also view these reports on mobile phones as well as RSS feeds (check the Now pages for more on that).  Check the Now! Calendar for all the reports from a day gathered together.

As well as our Now reports, on each Resort listing page you will find the current snow depth of each resort as well as the weekly forecast.  The snow depth information is updated once a day while the weather forecast information is updated every three hours.  As an example, this is the Naeba resort page - you will see the weather & snow information towards the top of the page.

Our Webcam Center presents over 100 webcams from resort regions and snow resorts from around Japan.

If you are a Member of SnowJapan and logged in, you can also create your own Resort Watch page which lists the resorts that you specify so you can keep an eye on the latest snow depths, new snowfall and weather info.  Another good place to find the latest info is the SnowJapanForums, more on the Forums below....

SnowJapan is much more than just information and data about winter sports in Japan.  Over the last few years a really active and friendly community has grown around SnowJapan, and we have done what we can to try and develop the site to make the most of that and give members some fun and interesting things to do on the site. 

The SnowJapanForums often see hundreds of posts each day - and are popular even in the summer months.   A real community feeling has developed around the Forums and while people from all over there world post regularly, there is also a large number of long-time members who live in Japan and are very knowledgeable about the Japanese winter sports scene.  Many people have made good friends on our Forums and there are always interesting and fun discussions going on - whether they be about winter sports or just general Japan discussions.  If you have any questions that you can't find the answer to on our pages, the Forums are the place to post them as you will often very quickly get a good response from the community.

In the Members section you'll find Member pages and you can also create your own.  It's all free and you can register here.

As well as posting on the Forums, SnowJapan members have also uploaded literally thousands of photos to our Photo section.  All photos are linked back to the resort where they were taken and you can also search for photos for any particular resort in Japan or member.  This year we are also introducing improved Photo Galleries.

If you are interested in knowing other peoples opinions of Japanese ski and snowboard resorts, a good place to start is by reading the Resort Reviews and Resort Journals on SnowJapan.  You'll find resort reviews for many of the resorts around Japan and you can also submit a new review or post journals yourself.

A new addition to the site this year is the Resort Rankings section.  In this section you can vote for any resort in Japan on five categories - General Score, Snow Conditions, Ski Course, Lift System and Apres Ski.  You can also search and manipulate the data to - hopefully - find out some interesting information and general ratings of resorts.  For example once the votes start coming in you'll be able to easily find the resort that gets the top marks for "apres ski in Nagano", or "snow conditions in Hokkaido".  Or even the ones that get the lowest scores!  To vote for a resort, please click here.

Another new addition this year is our new SnowJapan.TV site where you can upload and view videos from the slopes of Japan.

Our General Info section has a few different sections that we hope will give some general background information about Japan and the winter sports scene here.  Our Introduction to Winter Sports in Japan gives a bit of history as well as a general introduction to some of the most popular snow regions of Japan.  There is also a general introductory Japan Guide and a simple Japanese Phrase section.

The Travel Info section will help you find out how to get to many of the snow regions of Japan.  This section has different guides for regions of Japan including Hokkaido Travel Info, Nagano Travel Info, Niigata Travel Info and more.

Our Features section contains over 200 feature articles.  Included are articles on the subject of Japan winter sports as well as interviews with people involved in the Japan winter sports scene.

Readers of SnowJapan can upload photos to the Photos section, but there are also some Photo Galleries on the site presenting some stunning scenery (as well as some cute monkeys taking a bath).  It's also worth checking out some photos from the 2005/2006 season when we had incredible amounts of snowfall.

That about introduces the main sections of SnowJapan.  With our actual 'site map' totalling over 15,000 pages in size, it is impossible to introduce them all here.  However our Site Map will try to organise and link to all the main pages of the site if you would like more detail. We hope you enjoy using SnowJapan and join in the fun - both online and on the slopes. Thank you.

We always welcome feedback and comments.  If you have any comments about this page or any section of the site, please let us know.  Contact us.