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Hi

I am thinking about my first trip to Japan for snowboarding next Feb for a couple of weeks. In my usual trips around Europe I look for good snow record, good intermediate slopes, and quiet/no lift queues. I have been reading resort reviews and snow reports and have come up with the following ideas for myself and the missus. Nozawa Onsen, Happo-One, Akakura, Kagura and/or Tsugaike Kogen. My thoughts were to spend about 3 days at 2 or 3 resorts and see a few sights as well. We will be snowboarding an am concerned that some resorts do not allow it or only on some slopes, is this still the way it is? An feedback would be welcomed. Thanks

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I don't think so, hashbrown. Most ski slopes in Japan allow snowboarders to hit. Perhaps there are still some "skiers only" areas though. But I guess it's rare as far as concerning Hakuba area.

I hear sometimes people say that kind of things for Nozawa though. I think Montoya can advice you some about Kagura.

 

\:\)

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Don't forget Shigakogen ski resort in Nagano. It is the biggest one in Japan. I can not find a good "consolidated" guide in web site even for Japanese. Probably, it consists of many smaller ski resorts. You can see it has 21 ski resorts in this Japanese version map.

http://www.e-kassets.com/gelandeguide/map_big/01shigakougen-big.jpg

- Oku-Shiga-Kogen is for skiers only.

- Kita-Shiga / Ryuo is another ski resort.

- Gorin-Kogen is an isolated ski resort.

- Giant connects to Hasuike with a ski trail.

It is a big big ski resort. I used to stay at Sun-Valley or Marunuma/Hasuike (a bottom location). Early morning, I went up to each top location by gondoras/lifts, and ski down to the lodge spending a whole day. It was a long time run each.

 

This a Yahoo! map of Sun-Valley. You see Marunuma/Hasuike moving to the right side.

http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?nl=36.42.47.99....x=246&CE.y=242

 

The 21 ski resorts are SunValley, MaruNuma, HasuIke, Giant, Hoppo-BunaDaira, HigashiTateyama, NishiTateyama, Terakoya, Takamagahara-Manmmoth, TanNeNoMori-Okojo, IchiNose-Family, IchiNose-Diamond, IchiNose-YamaNoKami, YakeBitaiYama, OkuShigaKogen, KidoIke, KasaTake, KumaNoYu, MaeYama, YokoteYama, and ShibuToge.

All are connected with snow trails.

 

In this Yahoo! map, you see many ski resort marks, from Sunvalley(Center) to OkuShigaKogen(Top-Rightmost) and ShibuToge(Bottom-Rightmost). This is the whole ShigaKogen resort.

http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?nl=36.42.48.55...9%e2%b8%b6&sc=5

 

Transportaion:

I think it would be hard to reach a ShigaKogen lodge from Narita airport within a day. If you want to save money, you stay at a so-called business hotel of Tokyo for a night, and take Shinkan-sen for Nagano & bus for ShigaKogen tomorrow. If you have enough days and money, I "strongly" recommend to go to JR Yudanaka station from Narita airport and stay at a Yudanaka Onsen Inn on the 1st day, and enjoy Onsen (untill 3:00pm around) at Yudanaka and go to a ShigaKogen ski lodge by a later bus from Yudanaka on the 2nd day.

 

Yudanaka Onsen

http://www.avis.ne.jp/~yudanaka/

Shibu Onsen

http://www.shibuonsen.net/

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