Myoko Akakura is claiming to be the first international ski resort in Japan. Myoko area is located at the border between Nagano and Niigata prefecture. It can be accessed from Nagano City or Joetsu City where Nagano-Shinkansen stops.
The location is close to the Japan-Sea. Have you ever seen one meter of snowfalls in one night? This area, yes, you'll see.


In recent years, Myoko Akakura has a lot of ski or snowboard travelers coming from Europe and Australia mainly in February.

View detailed snow forecast for Akakura Kanko at:
snow-forecast.com

We went there at 23th March. The ski resort was completely fulling up with non-Japanese customers in Feburary, but we could enjoyed uncrowded course in the end of March. If you visit here at March then you can enjoy more.

the road leading to Akakura

uncrowded course, still high season

Myoko Akakura, Akakura Kanko Ski Resort.
Myoko Akakura Onsen Ski Resort.
Myoko Suginohara Ski Resort.

The Tengendai-Kogen is found in the Yonezawa town in Yamagata prefecture and is a local, small-mid-size ski resort with three lifts and four ski courses.

http://www.tengendai.jp/winter/gerende.html

View detailed snow forecast for Tengendai Kogen at:
snow-forecast.com

a view from the lowest lift

a view from the highest lift

a view looking up from the top of the ski course

As a small town, Yonezawa is still not a place you would stay for a weeklong. It is however a good option for staying one night at Onsen resorts near Tengendai-Kogen, for instance, Shirabu-Onsen, or Shin-Takayu-Onsen.

Notice that you can rarely find Japanese people who can speak English or any other language around these local towns!

Fukushima prefecture is famous for snowy region, and has a lot of snow resorts.
Grandeco snow resort is one of the biggest snow resort in Fukushima, places near Mt. Bandai. Ura-bandai area is close to Bandai-Asahi National Park, which is one of the Japanese National Parks.

This time, we made our first visit to Grandeco! Though it is already March, snowmonsters haven't been melted!

Climbing in snow is sometimes very difficult, put ourselves in danger, -- but sometimes give us a amazing experience. We joined the backcountry skiing/snowboarding tour in this weekend at Zao area in Yamagata prefecture. Love it!!

Though I don't know the correct English, Yukihatago-Lightning is the festival of lighted reproduced-tavern built by the snow.

Event page
Yukihatago Facebook event page

A picture is worth a thousand words... This year is 10th anniversary of this festival. Gassan-Shizu onsen flourished as village of Japanese-inn for practitioners of Shindo who headed to Mt. Gassan. Now, the tavern in period building were reproduced by snow.

A shrine.

Snow rabbit.