A very nice little place Adatara Kogen turned out to be. Compact, but with plenty of trails of different types packed into the space, so lots of variety. Highlights include the ungroomed upper Andromeda course, with knee-high powder "moguls" (for freshies, pay 1,000 yen for first tracks in the morning), the Cassiopeia course which consists of a switchback track with powdery steeps between the straightaways, a pole bahn, a mogul bahn (but too early in the season, apparently --
Adatara is a great little ski resort - I highly recomend it!
The groomed courses were really icy both times I have been there, thankfully there is not much of a board park as falling over really hurts, I still have a sore neck from a small fall on a small jump, but if you cut under the gondola there is an awesome face (on the left on the way up) that has plenty of potential for some off piste.
I think it is the worst ski resort that I have been so far (compared to Zao, Kita-shiga Komaruyama, Hakuba Happo, Kashimayari). The beginner slope is quite steep and short. I was expecting good snow powder since it is February but it turned out to be as hard as rock. It was painful for people to fall down. The crowd of people was too big. One has to wait for 15-20 mins average just for a ski/snowboard lift. Only two
