The services, facilities and hospitality at Appi Ski Resort are very good. The Resort Centre and Appi Plaza have extensive facilities for day trippers, and there are further amenities at the slopeside hotels.

Facilities for Children

Appi is an OK Japanese ski resort for families with small children.

Firstly the Appi Happy Snow Park is very impressive. Conveniently situated in front of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the fenced off park provides buckets of fun for kids. In addition to lots of playground equipment, the park has magic carpets to service tubing, tobogganing, and skiing. The park is open during the day and attracts a small fee for kids aged 3 and over.

Child care is no longer available.

Appi Kogen Ski School and Snowboard School

For kids ages 3-12, Appi offers lessons on an indoor slope and incorporates games and fun equipment, however group lessons are with a Japanese speaking instructor, whilst private lessons can be with an English speaking instructor.

For teenagers and adults, lessons with an English speaking instructor are also just held in a private format.

Appi Kogen Ski Rentals and Snowboard Hire

Appi Kogen has a large ski and snowboard rental shop at the Resort Centre as well as rental stations at the Hotel Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn. The rental gear is mainly Salomon and Atomic and is reasonably new. Equipment includes a large range of skis, snowboards, boots, snow clothing, and accessories such as goggles and gloves.

They cater well to Westerners and have clothing and boots in sizes that range from small kids up to XXXL adults. They have a range of powder skis for rent, and have an Unlimited Pass which allows you to change the skis or snowboard as often as you like so that you can demo various models.

Eating On Mountain / Lunch Time Restaurants

Appi Kogen has a large range of options to choose from for a lunch-time feed.

The Red House (which used to be purple but it’s finally now red!!) is located mid-mountain and serves similar food.

At the base area there is a huge food court with various different food outlets. Options include Chinese noodles, curry, pizza, spaghetti, Korean fare, ramen and other Japanese cuisine. The Resort Centre also has eateries including a sandwich bar and café, a bakery, a family restaurant (Makiba), and a crepe stand. There’s also Nirvana, an Indian food stall that serves up inexpensive curry sets with over-sized naan bread.

If you’ve been burning up plenty of energy on the slopes, you can get a big lunch time feed at one of the slope side hotels which includes a grand buffet.

Banking Facilities

Hotel Crowne Plaza has an ATM near the Cortina shop, but it’s inconsistent as to whether it works for all international cards, so it’s probably best to BYO cash. Luckily lots of places at Appi accept credit card.

There is an ATM at Lawson near the Appikogen train station (about 2.5km from the resort) or there is access to an ATM in Morioka at the post office near the train station.

English Assistance

The slope side hotels provide concierge services with English speaking hosts. The hosts can assist with enquiries and provide concierge services.