An incredible 60% of the terrain is left ungroomed meaning Madarao turns into an incredible powder playground. For those that want to breeze through perfect groomers there are excellent runs as well for all levels.
For the more advanced skiiers and boarders Madarao Mountain have thinned out (gladed) a stack of tree runs meaning more of the mountain is accessible to for incredible tree skiing all season long. Imagine and entire mountai...
It is a lovely old onsen village with a ski resort above it. There are some excellent restaurants in town and a few gorgeous public onsens.
We love visiting Nozawa because we love eating a local delicacy Oyaki Ringo (apple dumplings).
The terrain in Nozawa is really good for skiers who mostly want to stay on piste. It has long wide open groomers making it a perfect resort to practice carve turns.
Myoko Kogen is a really nice place to stay if you are after a bigger town than Madarao.
Myoko has expansive terrain however each of the Myoko resorts are not well connected to each other so we tend to focus on one resort at a time when we go there.
Suginohara is the best on non powder days with long wide open perfect groomers. Seki Onsen which is tiny is best on powder days but it can track...
The heavy snowfalls of Japan's snow country are caused by moisture-laden clouds bumping up against the mountains along the backbone of Honshū and releasing their moisture under the influence of westerly winds blowing off the continent or down from Siberia. As a result, the region includes some of the world's snowiest spots at the same latitudes!
