It's Saturday 6th and the day of the official opening of the resort here, with the ceremony to be held on the Uwanodai area by the base centre at 11am.

Just a bit more fresh snow since yesterday here and it's a cloudy start to the day in the village, a bit of light snow lazily falling.

My oh my what a start to December this is. Masses of snow. Over 30cm since my report yesterday to report.

I bring good snowy but also windy news!

Snowing properly this morning with 10cm or so of fresh snow on the ground here in the village areas and more on the way over the next few days and maybe into the weekend as well.

The sun has been out for a bit this morning and showing off all of the "white" on show with I would say a good 20+cm on the middle slopes of the resort.

Good morning everyone and welcome back to my Zao Now reports, coming to you once again directly from this lovely little village nestled at the bottom of the ski runs.

It's the last day of Golden Week and the last day of the ski and snowboard season in Zao Onsen. It's over five months since the first ski lifts of the season opened back at the end of November 2013.

Busy over the weekend in Zao. Of course, there's only limited upper areas remaining open now, so everyone's heading to the same place.

Some snowfall over the weekend, along with cold temperatures again. Felt a bit like winter!

Well, the snowfall hasn't dried up yet! Over 10cm of heavy snow outside this morning and temperatures remaining in the negative.

A few cm of snow at base here, though it's kind of heavy rather than light and fluffy.

10cm of fresh snow at base this morning. More on the mountain, surely. A good way to celebrate the lower ticket prices for spring as I mentioned in previous reports.

A few cm of snow from yesterday, but today the sun is out and it's going to be a beautiful blue sky day when the remaining clouds clear.