sez 0 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Hi Never been to Japan, but planning on a trip. Great to find this website, it's easily the best info. Been reading up on places and I like the idea of the Yuzawa area in Niigata Prefecture. Sounds like there's lots of ski hills around the town and just slightly further out as well. You could spend 2 weeks and go to a different place each day. Am I right? I know some of them are small, but that sounds decent to me. I actually prefer places that are more compact than spread out over huge areas, as long as the snow is good and there's a decent variation of terrain. Onsen sound good too. Link to post Share on other sites
634-maru 4 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 It is a fine area. There's 10+ places in Yuzawa itself, a handful just to the north in Minamiuonuma, then you have Minakami just to the south. You can do many of those by shuttle bus, but if you have a car it is really great. Link to post Share on other sites
snowdude 44 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Yes Yuzawa is nice and dows have plenty of ski hills from small to big and with plenty of terrain variation. Like Maru said if you have a car then real easy to visit a different place everyday. Link to post Share on other sites
634-maru 4 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 It's easy even without a car, the point being a car makes it easier and lets you go to places that have less of a shuttle service (like Hakkai-san and Minakami). Link to post Share on other sites
snowdude 44 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Minakami by the way is just over the orher side of the mountain in Gunma prefecture but very close to all the Yuzawa resorts. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Minakami just 30-40 minutes from Yuzawa using the expressway. Remember to give allow half a day for the gondola if you are planning on Tenjindaira though. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 But yes as they said. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Serious question about Tenjin gondola - does it go faster at peak times/weekends? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Ive been on a saturday and my hair grew back before we reached the top Link to post Share on other sites
cal 6 Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 It stays slow on Saturdays? Surely they have a go fast mode for the thing! Link to post Share on other sites
cal 6 Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Actually, Tubby, how busy was Tenjin on a Saturday? Link to post Share on other sites
sez 0 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 Thanks folks. I have an onsen question but I think I'll make it a new thread. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Actually, Tubby, how busy was Tenjin on a Saturday? Not very.......but the snow maybe had something to do with it. It hadn't had fresh snow for a few days and was a bit crusty. Most people were hiking off the back Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 That place is small it wouldn't take that many people to get crowded. The official runs anyway. Link to post Share on other sites
DumbStick 13 Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 I'm going to go to Yuzawa much more this next season, get to know it better. Will try out Kandatsu too. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Its nice. What ive seen of it anyway. The bits i didnt see were skier only, or small hills i believe (or hills with a random policy to shut down the best parts of the mountain). For me, and im not proselytizing here, but yuzawa area comes a distant second to Iiyama if i was seriously picking a place to move around from. Actually maybe not. The transport is way better in yuzawa. Its actually a doddle picking your resort, getting on a shuttlebus and then coming home once youre done. not so, illyama. Well, info is current as of March 2013. If you had a car though, id pick iiyama for the resorts. Nozawa, Madarao, Ryuoo, Kosha, and Togari beat Kagura, Naeba, Naspa, Gala, and er, i forget everything else. You could even throw Myoko and Shiga koge into that iiyama pot. Its genuinely top quality for me. Theres also the Hakuba area (goryu/47, happo, Iwatake, Cortina, and that other one i forget). Theres also the snow monkey japanese ski experience in Yamanouchi (kosha and shiga kogen along with Snow monkeys, hokkusai museum in obuse, onsen, and nakano). Theres also the Zao thing But i forget what that is. Actually we need more of these base areas. Its really fun. Wheres metabo to fill us in on the fukushima options? And Zao to fill us in on the zao options and er, someone anywhere else to tell us about the rest of honshu. Im sure theres an area in the south nagano/north Gifu bit too. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Yuzawa area has Mt Granview though..... Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Wheres metabo to fill us in on the fukushima options? And Zao to fill us in on the zao options I'm always happy to extoll the virtues of Fukushima options (or even Zao, for that matter), but Sez asked about Yuzawa. Which is also good -- and closer to Mt. Granview, of course. Link to post Share on other sites
METAL 0 Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Is there anything in the Zao area, apart from Zao? It's kind of out on it's own isn't it. Link to post Share on other sites
iiyamadude 6 Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 It sure will be interesting to see how things change next season once the shink is established. Yuzawa is certainly more "compact" than this area. Link to post Share on other sites
Karnidge 2 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I think Yuzawa is great, especially when the snow is in top condition. So many places to choose from and close-by. And so close to Tokyo as well. Link to post Share on other sites
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