Activities & Tours
Hakuba Activities and Tours One of the great things about
Hakuba is the various tours and activities on offer. If you need a rest day from skiing or snowboarding, or the snow conditions aren’t to your liking, there are other things to do.
Hakuba Ski Tours and Activities Backcountry tours can be organised through
Evergreen Outdoor Tours with tours for varying abilities and the distance hiked. Evergreen also run avalanche safety courses for first time backcountry tourers and up to Level 1 certification. Evergreen's director is a CAA professional member and personally runs Canadian Avalanche Association
Avalanche Safety Training (AST) courses for first time to advanced backcountry tourers up to AST II certification as well as being one of the instructors and examiners on the Japan Avalanche Network Level I professional courses
Alternatively, spring heli skiing is offered by Tsugaike Kogen resort for ¥9,000 per run. It isn’t great as the terrain is all national park and there are various restrictions on where helicopters can land, so they repeatedly land at the same place. The “backcountry” is beginner-like and it’s sign-posted (!) so it’s more like tracked out piste than the virgin snow you’d expect from heli-skiing (unless you are lucky to be amongst the first few after a fresh dump).
Sightseeing Tours If you want a break from skiing or boarding, there are various day tours available where you can take in some history and culture. These include trips to Matsumoto Castle, Nagano’s Zenkoji Temple, and tours to see the snow monkeys at the Jigokudani hot springs. Your travel agent, the Wadanomori visitor centre, Ski Japan Holidays, and many of the hotels will provide you with information about sightseeing tours or make reservations.
The Matsumoto castle tour is commonly combined with a tour of the Daio wasabi farm, which provides an opportunity to taste wasabi in many forms including yummy ice-cream.
Japanese Snow Monkeys Not far from Hakuba and Nagano is the Jigokudani Monkey Park where the 200 odd “wild” monkeys warm themselves in the hot springs. The monkeys are used to the tourists, and you’ll get very close to these absolutely fascinating monkeys. We took a blow-up Skippy with us as part of a challenge to get photos of Skippy in unusual places, but had to deflate the kangaroo fairly quickly because the monkeys were terrified of this foreign predator!
Make sure you have an empty memory card and fully charged batteries on your camera, as there will be endless photo opportunities as the monkeys perform very cute activities such as somersaults in the water. There’s a 25 minute hike each way along a scenic path from the bus parking, so wear sensible shoes.
The monkey tour is usually combined with a trip to the Zenkoji Temple which is very enjoyable. This temple is designated a national treasure and has a very long history, which includes the first Buddha image brought to Japan in the 7th century. As to be expected, you have to take off your shoes in the temple, so wear really warm socks or you’ll get frostbite. For an extra ¥500, you can take a short tour under the temple which apparently provides some spiritual value, but the real fascination is walking around a small tunnel in complete darkness. The streets surrounding the temple demonstrate “traditional” Japanese architecture and have gorgeous lit lanterns. A full day tour of the monkeys and the temple will cost about ¥10,000 per person.
Other Hakuba Activities At Happo-One you can visit the ski jumping stadium and take an elevator up to the top of the jumps to appreciate how crazy the ski jumpers must be. Admission is fairly cheap at about ¥360.
Alpine alternatives can be organised through Evergreen or Hakuba Outdoor Sports Club which include snowshoeing, cross-country skiing along the Olympic courses, or snow rafting.
If you need a break from the alpine slopes why not try
cross country skiing in the Hakuba area on the 1998 Winter Olympic course or an evening fondue
snowshoe tour with the whole family or just that special someone. Day time snowshoe tours are also available through out the Hakuba valley. For those skate boarders that want to do some skating in the evenings you must check out the Kokusai Underground run by local skate and snowboard pros.
Relaxation Of course, an essential part of any Japanese skiing holiday is to go to one of the onsens (hot springs) in Hakuba to soothe aching muscles. Onsens such as Juro No-Yu and Tenjin No-ju are off the main drag a little, but offer great views of the mountains that make your soak a little more therapeutic. Otherwise there are various options near the common accommodation areas. See our travel advice page for tips on
onsen etiquette.
Hakuba Activities & Tours Listings
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Evergreen Outdoor Centre
Back country ski tours, avalanche training courses, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing are just a few of the activities on offer by the Evergreen Outdoor Centre.
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