Yanaba Snow & Green Park is located in Omachi city by the side of Lake Aoki and just to the south of Hakuba village in Nagano Prefecture. It was on the outskirts of the Hakuba area, but it had its fans.
Unfortunately Yanaba managed to only open for less than 50 days during the entire 2015-2016 season and it has not opened since that season. The small train station on the Oito line by the base of the ski area also closed down in March 2019. As of September 2020, the base Center House building and ski lifts are still in place and there have been rumours of a possible revival, but no confirmed information is available. Any new updates will be reported!
More information about Yanaba can be found on SnowJapanHistory.com.
Hakuba village is just over 40km to the west of Nagano city in the northern region of Nagano Prefecture. Hakuba was host to some of the major events of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics including alpine skiing (at Hakuba Happo-one), ski jump events and cross country events. The backdrop of the North Alps makes for a spectacular mountain setting. Along with the ski and snowboard resorts in neighbouring Otari village to the north and Omachi City to the south - collectively known as 'Hakuba Valley' - this is one of the major ski and snowboard resort regions of Japan. In recent years the Hakuba region has become one of the most popular winter sport regions of Japan for visitors from overseas.
Nagano Prefecture is located in the Chubu region of the main island of Honshu. Most of the Northern Alps, Central Alps and Southern Alps are located within Nagano (along with neighbouring prefectures). Nagano has the second highest number of ski and snowboard resorts in all of Japan and they are spread around the whole prefecture. Nagano city and many of the major ski resorts are located in the northern region.