Jangle Jungle Ski Resort

Kurobushi Kogen Snow Park Jangle Jungle or Jangle Jungle for short is a trendy ski resort for the youngsters from Sendai and Yamagata. Jangle Jungle aka JXJ is a ski area that’s good for intermediates and park hounds, whilst powder hounds may find the area too mellow. It also needs a lot of snow, or the off-piste is like a jungle with vines and shrubbery that can trip you up. 

Pros and Cons of Jangle Jungle

Pros

• Two of the three lifts are high-speed detachable quad chairs.
• Jangle Jungle is reasonable for low-end intermediate riders.
• There are often various snow park features set up.

Cons

• The lift tickets are expensive considering the small size of the ski area, and even 5 hour tickets are costly. They probably need to generate enough revenue to keep the escalators going!
• The terrain is not very steep and it’s undulating and benches out in lots of places, so any off-piste is mellow and short lived.
• Jangle Jungle Ski Resort is not close to a group of great ski areas that you could incorporate on a road trip.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective

• Jangle Jungle is usually really quiet on weekdays, whilst weekends can be bustling.
• This is a day trip ski area, as there is no accommodation on-mountain.

Jangle Jungle Ski and Snowboard Terrain

When you see the infrastructure at the base with its long escalators to take you up to the day lodge and the massive cafeteria, you could be forgiven for thinking that Jungle Jangle is a Whistler Blackcomb sized ski resort. But this is Japan, where ski areas come in small sizes and Jangle Jungle is no different. The piste is just 34 hectares and there are 5 courses that run a vertical of 330 metres (700 to 1,030m).

JXJ has just 3 lifts, of which 2 are high speed detachable quad chairs with safety bars (East Express and West Express). There is also a fixed grip double chair (Jangle Pair) for beginners that runs at a reasonable pace ,and it runs nightly for the many families that arrive for night skiing.

The beginner terrain near the base is quite pitchy for novices, but at least it’s wide open so there is plenty of room for error. There are 2 green runs off the quad chairs that are also better suited to confident beginners. Other than one very short advanced run, the other piste are for intermediates. The main attraction for many intermediate snowboarders are the snow park hits such as jumps, table tops and banks. There was supposedly a half pipe, but it was so wide that you could run a downhill event on it, if it was steep that is.

If you’re a Tarzan that wants to head through the jungle, there is some off-piste that provides a little fun. A few of the locals give it a crack and it mostly seems to be well tolerated by the staff, whereas the steep trees at skiers’ left at the very top do not appear to be kosher. The off-piste doesn’t have many gullies to contend with, but the main limitations are rolling terrain and if the snow base is low, the amount of undergrowth to negotiate.

See our Honshu ski resort ratings to see how we rated Jangle Jungle ski terrain.

Jangle Jungle Snow

Kurobushi Kogen Snow Park Jangle Jungle usually receives moderate amounts of snow and the base usually gets up to about the 2 metre mark by mid-winter. It’s located close enough to the west coast to get plenty of precipitation, but far enough inland for the quality of the snow to have some dryness.

The top elevation of the ski area at 1,300 metres is about average for a Yamagata ski resort, and the snow quality is often well retained due to north to north facing slopes.

Where is Jungle Jangle?

Jangle Jungle Ski Area is 34km northeast of Yamagata City in the eastern part of the Yamagata Prefecture. It is 55km northwest of the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, which equates to just over an hour drive.

The famous tourist village of Ginzan Onsen is to the north and by road it’s 54km away.

Other ski areas in the vicinity:

• Zao Onsen is 56km to the southwest
• Gassan is 68km to the west
• Yamagata Akakura Onsen is 59km to the north

Driving is the easiest way to get to JXJ and you’ll need an AWD or 4WD to drive up there because the road is steep and winding. The telephone number is 0237-41-5555 if you need it for GPS navigation. Parking is free and there are ridiculously long escalators from the car park up to the day lodge.

If you don’t have wheels, there are daily shuttles from the Sakurambo Higashine train station on weekdays and twice daily shuttles on weekends.

Accommodation

If you weren’t visiting Jungle Jangle on the way through and wanted to stop in the area, there are inexpensive hotels in downtown Higashine, which is 17km to the west.

Ski Resort Facilities

Jangle Plaza houses most of the facilities and services. It includes a massive cafeteria, a smaller café, equipment rentals, a shop, and a snowsports school if you want lessons in Japanese.