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Hello all snow Japaners, it is great to see the forums firing up again in anticipation of the coming season.

 

I have moved to Tokyo from Niigata (where I got into skiing) and I am looking to maintain the habit while living in Tokyo. At the first sign of cooler weather, I started clicking around the numerous sites offering bus/train package deals from Tokyo. I found one deal, 初すべり 11月限定日出発 (first ski, November departure) with tickets to Marunuma Kogen in Gunma, starting on November 22nd. What is the chance of the resort even being open at that time, even partially? Are they using artificial snow there?

 

This year they are claiming a pretty impressive park, I wonder how much of that terrain they will be able to build so early in the season. You can see the snow park layout on the pdf downloadable from their site.

 

I just had a click around Kagura and they are hoping to get the lifts moving on November 22nd with a full open (Tashiro area) scheduled for December 7th. I seem to recall them putting the same dates up last season but I believe that things didn't actually get going until about a week after that. I remember because it was my first slide last season.

 

Also, other than Marunuma and Kagura, does anyone else have any early season favourites in the Yuzawa/Minakami or even Nagano areas?

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Thanks for the advice Snowdude. I checked the Minakami reports from last season and it seems early... till pretty much New Year... was very much a miss. Maybe that was when Tubby was there.

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I love marunuma to bits, but I definitely can't recommend its onsen. A tad skanky.

 

Even waiting a week or two more will improve the odds of a good outing, because it really is much more fun higher up.

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I just have to cool my boots. First slide of the season is always good but I am glad I waited for good conditions to make my first outing to Kagura last season.

 

After almost 7-8 months or so of waiting, another few weeks won't make much difference. I envisage lots of cam checking in the coming months.

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I've been known to partake of early-season slopes, including late-Nov. Marunuma.

Never regretted it, just set expectations accordingly, and it can be fun.

There won't be any park set up that early, though, if that is important to you.

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