Hakuba Ski Rental, Snowboard Hire

There are a very good number of Hakuba ski rental and snowboard hire shops located at the base of each of the ski resorts and in some of the Hakuba hotels and pensions, although in some cases with the latter, it looks like they’re renting gear from the pre-Olympics era!

A great pick for a Hakuba ski rental /snowboard shop is Central Snowsports which has three locations across Hakuba: in the heart of Happo near the Happo-One gondola; opposite the Sakka lifts (and great beginner area) in Upper Wadano; and Goryu opposite the Escal Plaza. They also offer a guest shuttle whereby they pick you up and drop you off to your accommodation. Central Snowsports have standard snowboard and ski rentals and clothing (pants, jackets, helmets) as well as high performance equipment and fat skis. In addition, they have backcountry ski touring rentals, skins, collapsible poles, snowshoes and packs with avalanche beacon, shovel and probe. You can pre-book your gear here.

Spicy Rentals has lots of Hakuba ski hire shops with prime locations: Echoland next to the BaseCamp shuttle bus stop; Upper Wadano; Happo; Iwatake at the gondola & Tsugaike just below the gondola. You can pre-book your gear here - standard or high performance ski and snowboard equipment and clothing.

Woody Ski and Snowboard Hire have two Hakuba ski rental shops in Happo. One is located just a few minutes walk from the Happo Information Centre (the bus terminal with shuttles to all the ski resorts) and the other shop is just 1 minute from the Happo gondola. Woody hires out performance skis and snowboard equipment, après boots, gloves, goggles, helmets and backcountry touring ski gear and avalanche safety equipment. You can pre-book your gear here.

If you’re looking to rent a split board, check out The Boarding Co.

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Hakuba Ski School, Snowboard Lessons

Evergreen Outdoor Center offers English speaking instructors for ski or snowboard lessons at Happo for children (aged 3+) and adults in either a half day or full day format. Evergreen also provides powder clinics and on-mountain guiding. Evergreen also provide lessons at Iwatake and Tsugaike.

The Hakuba 47 Ski Academy International also offers ski & snowboarding lessons, both for private & group lessons. Only ski lessons are currently available in English. If you want English snowboarding lessons, Hakuba Ski Concierge offer private lessons at all Hakuba ski areas.  For the little kids, they have a kids program (Frank Club) which offers full day lessons, equipment rental & lunch for kids 4 - 12. Pre-schoolers 5 and under get a free lift ticket.

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Hakuba Services

Physio Services

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Childcare

In addition to the ski lessons provided for children, Evergreen also offers child care for the morning or full day (18 months to 6 years) with English speaking staff. The child care facility is located at the Kokusai base of Happo-One and they provide transport between your hotel and the centre. Evergreen also provide child care at Iwatake and Tsugaike for ages 18 months to 6 years.

There is also childcare at Cortina inside the Green Plaza Hotel, although there’s no guarantee that the staff speak English.

There are also a couple of Hakuba babysitting and nanny services.

Banking Facilities

You will need to budget well prior to visiting Hakuba as credit cards are not accepted everywhere. Your best bet might be to cash up at Narita airport (there are ATMs just behind the information centre area).

ATMs in Hakuba are a little hard to come by. There’s an ATM at the post office in the town of Hakuba which is a significant inconvenience if that’s the only reason for travelling there (although it is worth popping into town to check it out). The ATM at the post office is open most nights until 7pm and it gives out big amounts of money (of course only if you have big amounts of money in your account!).

There is also an ATM in the 7-Eleven in the Echoland and Iwatake areas, and an ATM at the Happo Information Centre.