I have fresh snow to report this morning as the planned opening of the ski area approaches.

A little more snow and a mix of cloud and blue sky this morning.

Hello from Zao Onsen. And what better way to kick off a season with news of some snow on the ground.

A cloudy last day of Golden Week here with the chance of rain.

The ski area is still part open and fair snow cover up on the Chuo slopes.

A cloudy morning with what looks like a lot of fog up in top areas. The ski area was reporting light rain earlier on.

Hello from Zao... it's snowing and there's cm to report!

Some more fresh snow and while it is just cloudy now, there's a chance of more fresh snow over the next few days.

It has been snowing with 4cm on the ground by 10am and it is definitely colder than it has been this last week.

More snow overnight after a day of sunny at times weather yesterday.

A bit more snow to report this morning and the ski area itself saying up to 10cm.

Yesterday there was snow through much of the day.

Yesterday the snow continued until around 7pm. The wind then became very strong until around 9pm.

It started snowing around 6:30am this morning and by the time of this report there is just about 1cm to be able to report.