Happo One
The Hakuba Valley is probably the best skiing region in Japan, and Happo One is
the jewel among its five resorts - seven if you count the tiny areas of Hakuba
Minekata and Hakuba Highland across the valley. With a backdrop of serious peaks
reaching almost 3,050m, Happo One will stage the blue riband event of the 1998
Olympics: the men's downhill. It will also be staging the men's Super-G and ski
jumping. (Shiga Kogen will host most of the remaining events.)
Happo has 35 lifts and the prettiest resort village a slightly Walt Disneyish
collection of crenellated, mock Tudor buildings through which winds an
attractive narrow street lined with shops and restaurants.
The Hokuba Valley is one of the longer train journeys from Tokyo (3hr 25min by
limited express, with an awkward platform change at Matsumoto) but well worth
the effort.
Naeba
Naeba, in Niigata prefecture is Japan's uRimate ski "factory" and
because of the huge numbers of skiers sometimes found on the mountain (41,000
was the record one Sunday a few years ago) it would not be the ideal
introduction to Japanese skiing for tourists.
It is extremely popular with Tokyo businessmen because it is relatively close to
Tokyo and there are lifts open from 4.30am until llpm.
There are plenty of hotels in the area, yet some skiers sleep on the benches in
the locker rooms for a few hours and then set off to ski at 4.30am.
Naeba has 31 lifts, a substantial number of trails mainly beginner and
intermediate - and there are some good powder options.
Nozawa Onsen
Buses packed with skiers leave Tokyo before dawn for the long journey to this
attractive ski area in the northern part of Nagano prefecture.
Nozawa Onsen combines a delightfully traditional ski village with good skiing
and - as the word Onsen denotes - hot springs.
It has 32 lifts and a good variety of terrain: in the right conditions there is
good powder skiing at the top of the area (reached by a five minute gondola
ride) and some attractive tree-lined beginner slopes lower down.
There is also night skiing available.
Shiga Kogen
Shiga Kogen, which will co-host the 1998 Nagano winter Olympics with Happo One,
is a microcosm of Japanese skiing. It is an extraordinary patchwork quilt of
small ski areas - 22 in all, sharing 75 lifts which, rather like a Japanese
version of the Portes du Soleil, can be visited on skis in a day or two at the
most. But do not expect too much in the way of challenging skiing.
Shiga Kogen is reached from Tokyo (Ueno station) by limited express on the Shin-etsu
line to Nagano (just under three hours) followed by another train journey of 45
minutes to Yudanaka and a bus ride.
Zao
The mountains of Japan's central highlands and the Japan Alps are numerous, and
if you include the more remote and less crowded slopes of Hokkaido, Japan has an
estimated 600 ski "areas" (many very small, mostly medium sized) of
which perhaps only 20 have an international flavour.
Of these Zao, in the north-east of Honshu in Yamagata prefecture - a three-hour
journey from Tokyo, followed by a 45minute bus drive - is recognized as one of
the best.
As well as an astonishing number of lifts for a Japanese resort (42), Zao has
all the prerequisites that western skiers imagine they will find in the Japan
Alps: hot springs, night skiing and juhyo (tree monsters)! These are not demons
that live in the trees, but the trees themselves that become so thickly coated
with ice and snow that they form surreal, ghostly shapes.
Forty per cent of the slopes are considered easy skiing, with just 20 per cent
designated expert terrain.
