A general message from SnowJapan has been added to this report on 5th May - see below

Original report from 4th April:

Good morning from Madarao.

It's Sunday 4th April and the last day of the 2020-2021 winter season here in Madarao.

The season is ending here with three lifts operating (Number 1, Number 2 quad and Number 3) and four courses open today. Snow melt over the last week or so in particular has been fast with the warm temperatures. But most courses were still open until close to the end which was good to see.

I want to write a few words as this is my last report this season.

First of all, let's check up on how much snowfall I observed here this time:

November 2020: 12cm
December 2020: 346cm
January 2021: 297cm
February 2021: 231cm
March 2021: 29cm

That brings the season total to 915cm snowfall at base. Last year that total number for the season was 617cm. So a much better showing.

(All these numbers and more available below and on the Snowfall Analysis page).

We didn’t get to see much fresh snow in March, and we did have some mild spells dotted around the season...

But we enjoyed some periods of exciting heavy snowfall and some great snow conditions. That period early season in the middle of December was very exciting!

It’s just a shame that more people were not able enjoy it.

In recent years, the number of foreigners visiting Madarao has been growing fast. For that to suddenly be largely cut off this season has been a bit of a shock to the system, but especially so for the people and businesses providing services to those visitors. It is not only the 'inbound' market that has been affected, of course - the number of Japanese people visiting this season has also gone down.

So, it has been a somewhat subdued season with covid-19 looming over it.

Most businesses have had a difficult season and are just left wondering if/how/when things will change in time for next winter. Of course, right now, no-one knows. I suppose as individuals there's not much we can do - apart from doing our bit, hoping that vaccines work well, and that the situation will be brighter in 4-6 months’ time.

I choose to be positive. That’s one of the things we can do, right? 😊

I’ll be back in the autumn of 2021 in the run up to the 2021-2022 season to report on next winter.

In the meantime, thanks for reading the reports. Take care, stay safe and have fun.

Hopefully more people will be able to Let's Madarao next season.

See you later in the year. Bye!


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End of season general message from SnowJapan
This message is being posted on all of the Now daily reports in early May

First of all, we hope that you and yours are keeping well.

What another strange season 2020-2021 has been.

In terms of snow and conditions, the story of the season can be found in the respective reports. Each region had its own story, of course, but it was certainly great to be able to get back to reporting some heavy snowfall this time round. Spring did once again seem to arrive earlier than we would like, but those fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the snow were able to experience some very fine conditions.

Challenges

Ski areas around Japan made various efforts to deal with the covid-19 situation and while there were some changes to operations here and there, most were able to open for the season. Some ski areas and regions have been affected more than others, but it’s probably safe to say that is has been a challenging period for pretty much everyone involved. In particular, destinations that have enjoyed a lot of foreign visitors in recent years have probably felt a big shock.

Perhaps inevitably, there has been a generally more subdued atmosphere and feel to the season.

Decisions

We made a few decisions before the winter started.

Unfortunately, it was getting obvious that international travel restrictions would be preventing people from entering Japan over the 2020-2021 season. And it was clearly going to be a great disappointment to many.

Even so, we wanted to keep SnowJapan updated as close to normal as possible. We asked our reporters to mention ‘the news’ when it seemed appropriate, but not to dwell on it too much. After all, people are not coming to SnowJapan to read about covid every day. We hope we got that difficult balance right.

Daily reports and updates are an important part of the site. They are popular with people while they are visiting Japan, but people also read our archive reports to see how previous seasons turned out and to make comparisons. Indeed, this last season we have noticed that a lot of you have been following from overseas – even if you weren’t able to come and enjoy the snow in person.

We would like to say a big public thank you to the reporters who did another fine job covering the 2020-2021 winter season on SnowJapan, in some challenging circumstances. Thanks to those efforts, we have another full season of data to add to our records.

Hopefully that information will continue to be of value to people making plans for a future visit to Japan.

Questions

The world knows much more about covid-19 in May 2021 than it did in April 2020, but in some ways we end this season with some of the same questions we were asking last year…

Everyone wants to know what the situation will be in six months’ time. There’s definitely brighter wider news and reasons to be positive, but big questions remain on how ‘open’ Japan might be for overseas visitors by the time the snow starts falling again.

No-one knows, of course.

Like last year, all we can do is try to keep a positive mindset and hope that progress will be made, and that overseas friends will be able to visit once again.

Looking Ahead

Whatever happens regarding the international travel situation, SnowJapan plans to be here reporting the 2021-2022 winter season.

2020-2021 might now be over, but as usual we are busy working on various stuff for the future. We’ll let you know what we’re up to later in the year.

In the meantime, if you are interested in old ski areas from the past around Japan, the SnowJapanHistory (www.snowjapanhistory.com) website will continue to be updated regularly. Over there you can find details on over 160 ski areas, including at least one that closed back in the 1960s (!)

Anyway, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading and your support. If you want to get in touch, as always you can contact us using this form.

Wherever you are in the world, stay safe… and we’ll see you later in the year.

(Hopefully with good news!)