2012/13 (earlybird and) Season Pass thread.

[ippy 66]

Ikenotaira at Myoko have what looks like a typically cheap one. If im reading it right, the earlybird is a pretty decent 17,000 yen if you buy before november 30th. (25,000 from Dec). Might have to pick that one up just in case im having a poor month but still want a back up to go riding. Four days in a season to make it cost effective? I might be able to stretch that.

 

The Mt Myoko (suginohara, ikenotaira and Akakan) is 50,000. Not entirely sure if thats a bargain since you can get those awesome black box deals and the price of a day ticket seems to have come down a bit over the last couple of years (they also do a fair few deals for lift pas plus lunch voucher for cheap).

 

Akakan (myoko) has an early bird for 35,000 if you buy it today. After today it goes up 5,000 yen to 40,000 up to the end of november and finally 52,000 for full price. Extortionate again in comparison to both the Mt. Myoko and the black box deals that actually cover akakan.

 

Suginohara (myoko) Is also pretty rough at 40,000, Though i might be wrong, i do think theres a 9,000 yen discount if you buy before 15th November (someone with pera pera skills would have to confirm).

 

Nozawa: Cant see an early bird deal. Flat 60,000 yen.

 

Hakuba Goryu/47: 48,000 early bird (you have today left to buy it), 60,000 regular.

 

Happo1: Made me spit out my lunch. Season pass is 65,000yen, Early bird is an amazing 55,000 yen.

 

Cortina and Norikura: Early bird is 40,000 yen (until Dec 10th). Regular is 50,000. There is also a single Cortina pass that is 25,000 early bird (until Nov 20th) and 35,000 for full season. The cortina pass looks like a decent option though if you arent picking up the JTB and happen to spend a lot of time there. The double pass... honestly unless you are EXCLUSIVE cortina/norikura id probably spend the extra 10,000 so i can have a bit of a change of scenery now and again with the JTB pass. And if you miss the early bird, i cant honestly think of a reason (besides supporting teh resorts specifically) why youd pay the more for less options.

 

JTB 31 resort pass: Stacks of smallish resorts, but some nice gems if youre in and about the area. A LOT of hakuba area is covered (norikura, cortina, tsugaike, iwatake, and the pico resorts in the area). They also have ryuoo/xjam which is nice as well as iizuna and kurohime making a reasonably decent pass for anyone living around nagano. Best to just check this thread for details: http://www.snowjapan...s-12-13-season/

Cost is 49,800. I live in the area, but i dont fancy being crippled by that kind of pass. Theres a 15 ticket book for 35,000 but you cant use tsugaike or iwatake. I reckon if youre hitting any one of those a lot for quick laps at night or the like (iizuna for example) then its decent value, otherwise im not 100% on it. It feels like its missing a big name.

 

Kagura/Naeba: I cant confirm this for sure, its all in japanese and its a pdf so no google translate. But i do believe there is a kagura/naeba pass for 80,000 yen (with an early bird discount - up to mid dec - of 5000 yen). Expensive, but i reckon i spent about that last season there coming from saitama. Around 20 days to break even (or about 16 days if you continually bought the dual pass). There are separate passes (both with 5000 yen off for early bird), with Naeba's sitting at 70,000 and kagura's at 75,000.

 

Joetsu Kokusai: Loads of advance tickets, but cant find the sason ticket info on the link. Best i can see is the eight day tickets (i assume they arent consecutive, but who knows?) for 19,800. Dunno about teh value, havent ridden it. The trail map doesnt look massively inspiring, but it does have a half pipe

 

Osorakan (wherehellthat?) has a 30,000yen early bird, but have only today to grab that. After today its 35,000 till mid november, and after that its 40,000. Cant tell you NOTHING on this place. But if its near yu, thats the info i have.

 

Sugadaira: Early bird is 50,000 but have until late November, regular price is 60,000.

 

Appi Kogen (iwate) has a book of 10 tickets available (usable any day in the season) for 21,000. Season pass info is garbled on google translate alas so wouldnt try and explicate it.

 

Mt. Takasu (dynaland and takasu): Looks like (again, stupid untranslatable site), 60,000 yen for the combined pass and 50,000 for either takasu snow park or dynaland. Cant see an early bird though i swear i saw it mentioned.

 

Daikura Kogen (aizu): 30,000 if you buy today, 32,000 if you buy up until late November and 38,000 regular price.

 

Eboshi (yamagata): 43,000 if you pick it up today, 48,000 if you buy until end of november, and 53,000 regular.

 

Nango: 35,000 regular. 30,000 if you pick it up today, and 32,000 if you pick it up in November.

 

Niseko United (all niseko): No early bird, but they did reduce the season pass (and its a decent length season) to 105,000yen. Which also includes all nighta as well, so you know, 14 hours a day for about 5+ months. Not exactly a ripoff if youre around the area.

 

Niseko indiv. resorts: Annupuri has a 53,000yen season pass. They also have an annupuri/niseko village pass (not hirafu/hanazono) for 70,000yen. Hirafu has a season pass (hirafu and hanazono i assume) for 89,000 yen.

 

Madarao: Real early bird ended at end of september. Pity, 32,000 seemed nice. Current early bird to end of November is 40,000 yen with regular price at 48,000. Not terrible to be honest.

 

Shiga Kogen: Cant see any discount/early bird, but its not an awful price. 65,000 yen.

 

Also worth mentioning is this one:

Premium Pass (shigakogen, nozawa, happo1): 80,000 yen.Im definitely considering this one. I probably wont. But really 15-20 days to break even. Only problem for me is that all of these require a bit of an expensive mission if youre using the train/bus.

 

K winter pass: (Rusutsu, Sapporo teine, Sohoro, Mt Racey (Yubari), Nakayama-toge) JPY70,000. Personally no idea about these, gozaimaas will though. Sounds like a nice and quiet alternative to niseko though

 

Kiroro: you have about 2 hours left on the early bird (ends 31st october like many of them) : ) - 45,000 yen. Otherwise its 64,000.

 

Inawashiro season pass is 29,000 yen until Nov. 30, 40,000 after that.

(10,000 for elementary schoolers and below, 15,000 for middle- and high-schoolers, regardless of when bought.)

Can also be used to get discounted tickets at other Macearth ski areas, and also at Grandeco.

 

Kamui Ski links (i have a feeling this is still 2011/2012 info): 35,000 for early bird until Nov 30th. Otherwise 50,000yen. If i lived in the asahikawa area, id snap this one up to be honest. The place KILLS.

[ippy 66]

Anyone know of the cortina/norikura and tsugiake iwatake passes? I figure its best if youre after those to pick up the JTB since they all fall under it, but you never know. Maybe the cortina one is like 12000 yen or something?/?

[kokodoko 67]

There is no early bird season pass for Niseko.

It has stayed the same price as last year or is at a discount. not sure which.

Cant find price. doh!

[Thundercat 60]

Cortina only early bird (until Nov 20): 25,000Y

Cortina and Norikura early bird (until Dec 10): 40,000Y

 

Full price is 35,000Y and 50,000, respectively.

[RobBright 35]

 

Joetsu Kokusai: Loads of advance tickets, but cant find the sason ticket info on the link. Best i can see is the eight day tickets (i assume they arent consecutive, but who knows?) for 19,800. Dunno about teh value, havent ridden it. The trail map doesnt look massively inspiring, but it does have a half pipe Isnt it also getting nearly hooked up to the shink as well?

 

 

 

When did you hear that? And how would they hook it up?

[ippy 66]

cheers dudes, surprised about the lack of a niseko one. Dont they have that whole sign up thing any more? I know two years ago they had an advance pass email thing (you say youre interested in the pass before x date, and so long as you can produce the acknowledgement email, you can buy the niseko united pass for like 30% off or something. Still fekkin expensive though and definitely one solely for the locals (i think the discount was something like 108,000 or the like).

Ill check up on it.

[ippy 66]

Egg on face. :eyes: :eyes:

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Joetsu already has its own shinkansen line....the Joetsu Line ( ), its the one that takes you from Tokyo to Echigo Yuzawa and Gala. I think they are connecting the Nagano line to the Joetsu so that people from Nagano station direction don't have to come down towards Tokyo and change over....they can ride direct

[ippy 66]

Dammit dammit dammit dammit! stupid computer froze up so i couldnt salvage my pride by editing before you all found out...

 

apparently theres joetsu the shink,joetsu the soon to be station (wakinoda) and joetsu the resort just north of Yuzawa. This is complex stuff.

 

ETA: What was the name of that uber pass that had shiga, nozawa and somewhere in hakuba on it?

ETA2: Feel free to tell me about random multi-resort passes or awesome deals if you know them. The more the merrier.

[gozaimaas 61]

K winter pass.

Rusutsu, Sapporo teine, Sohoro, Mt Racey (Yubari), Nakayama-toge JPY70,000

[anything 6]

There is no early bird season pass for Niseko.

It has stayed the same price as last year or is at a discount. not sure which.

Cant find price. doh!

 

I was pretty pissed when I heard there was no discount, but it looks like its still cheaper in the end anyway.

 

My 'budget' from last year says that it was 152,000

with a 30% discount if you ordered before August 2011 (106,400)

and 15% for October 2011 (129,200)

 

This year it is 105,000, so we'll still save a little in the end.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

Inawashiro season pass is 29,000 yen until Nov. 30, 40,000 after that.

(10,000 for elementary schoolers and below, 15,000 for middle- and high-schoolers, regardless of when bought.)

Can also be used to get discounted tickets at other Macearth ski areas, and also at Grandeco.

 

Kind of tempted.

[SnowJapan 178]

Here is a Lawson site with stuff like this:

 

http://l-tike.com/ski/

 

courtesy of ippy, and thanks for asking.

[ippy 66]

thanks dude. Theyre all just early bird day tickets, but as far as i know you can use them any time in the season and 5 or 6 of them means you arent pegged to just the one resort which is nice but still have a bargain on a few days for emergency funding collapses

[NECK 14]

I had the big 3 'Premium Pass' for a couple of seasons (08/09 and 09/10) which was a super good pass. You can get up to a 3 day pass at any of the 3 resorts every time you use a ticket from the booklet. It is expensive but you definitely get a lot. Shiga season pass alone is 65,000!

 

Last season I got the JTB pass and will do the same this year. Cortina only pass at 25,000 (early bird price) is very good if you spend a lot of time there, but the JTB gives you the onsen ticket with each visit . Also Tsugaike and Kashi stay open longer, and I managed to score some sick late season powder at Kashi well into April! Having Ryuo and Tangram Ski Circus on there too is nice to switch thing up every now and again.

 

JTB is the best value in my eyes. Can't wait to get on it again this season

[RobBright 35]

Joetsu already has its own shinkansen line....the Joetsu Line ( ), its the one that takes you from Tokyo to Echigo Yuzawa and Gala. I think they are connecting the Nagano line to the Joetsu so that people from Nagano station direction don't have to come down towards Tokyo and change over....they can ride direct

 

The Hokuriku is getting connected up at Joetsu station but don't think it has any relation to Joetsu Kokusai?

 

[muikabochi 208]

Joetsu Kokusai is about 80 minutes drive from the closest point of the route of the Shinkansen extension.

 

Perhaps Joetsu (the city) is being mixed up with Joetsu Kokusai (the skijo)?

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Yeah that's what Ippy was getting mixed up with..I wasn't saying Kokusai was getting or had already, a shink stop. I just mentioned that the main Niigata line from Tokyo is called the Joetsu....so Joetsu already had a line....but didn't mean the ski jo

[muikabochi 208]

[ippy 66]

Oh, and just for a laugh the train station for Joetsu is actually called naoetsu. But thats the port of joetsu, the station is actually a couple of stops before. Oh joetsu, how you mock me.

[ippy 66]

STILL CANT BLOODY DECIDE!!!

 

Basically Nozawa or Myoko? Lemme see if i can pinpoint the issues here:

 

Pros to myoko:

 

1. 3 resorts: ikenotaira; akakan; suginohara.

2. Super easy access - train to nagano (330yen), train to myoko (650) then bus (300-480yen). In total, about a 2 hour journey.

3. It myoko innit! Lots of off piste to play in and if i feel like it i can even get a cheap pair of snowshoes and ninja up the hill for even more to play on.

 

Cons:

 

1. im never THAT inspired by it. Love the powder but its just myoko.

2. Passes have PLUMMETED in price. 3800 seems normal for suginohara these days.

3. Come the slush in march and suginohara is unrideable after the half way point at Mitahara. Akakan is alright but the pow still gets pretty wet and nasty.

4. Its like a safety school season pass. Nice when youve got no cash, but ive been there too much and this yeari promised i wouldnt buy one (but in starting to realise this might be a bad idea since im not exactly rich enough to do 40 plus days using daily passes - and i do want 40 plus days this season).

5. Black box deals are awesome. Why go season pass when i can get hotel, lift pass, and dinner for the price of a lift ticket?

 

NOZAWA

 

Pros:

1. The top was AWESOME in late season. That was a revelation. This means a decent length season.

2. When it drops, the whole resort is off the hook.

3. Slackcountry is phenomenally good fun.

 

Cons:

1. Bit more of a hassle to get to. Cost is similar but just the changes you need to make and the time between them makes it all a bit more annoying. (house-->nagano-->longish train ride--->20 minutes hanging around for the bus--> walk ten-15 minutes up the hill or wait ten minutes for the now apparently heaving shuttle bus). Just as awkward on the way back.

2. The place i want to ride = byebye season pass if im collared - and i will be.

3. Its a bit pricey.

4. Aside skyline and ushikubi in a drop, Im not really in love with the trails themselves, more just the fact it keeps going way past myoko for pow and its slackcountry is super easy to access as well as being freaking awesome.

5. I dont want to die. I ride predominantly on my own. I cant see me not riding those dodgy lines to be honest. I will probably get in an accident.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Solution --- both!

 

Sell body for funds if required.

[ippy 66]

yeah, gimme a few months to work my way through this massive queue of people lusting after my stank.

 

In more realistic news, turns out you can buy tickets on yahoo auction. Maybe i need to just pick up one of those book of ten passes? Might need to make a trip to nagano sometime this week. Does the bookshop still sell those things?

[ippy 66]

Right, im thinking nozawa in truth. Just need one more piece of the puzzle. Anyone got a picture of this years bus timetable from the station to the resort(ish).

 

Just need to figure out how long a wait ive got and what times i can expect to have to leave each day?

Actually, this is necessary ino for all concerned. We need a thread with all the bus timetables that gets us to our spots. If im in nagano this weekend, ill pop to the bus stops and see if theyve got the mid december-march timetables up yet?

 

But need to know that shuttle timetable.

 

Actually a few off the top of my head that we could all do with (FOR NAGANO AREA)...

 

Nagano buses (myoko/hakuba/shiga/nozawa/madarao

iiyama buses (madarao/nozawa/ryuoo(?)... what else?)

yudanaka buses (shiga kogen/ryuoo/kosha)

 

Those are the three main spots for connections right?

 

Outside that we kinda need hakuba area connections, nozawa, and myoko (8.58 to suginohara and ikenotaira; 9am to akakan/akakura: dunno about seki).

kurohime/iizuna can be done by train if i remember right (though not sure if theres another bus required for them both). Bleh... so much information needed, so few me's to do it.

[SnowJapan 178]

Ippy, that last comment!

I know how you feel, it's a lonely and frustrating place isn't it?