We visited Myoko Kogen for 9 days in early March and stayed in Akakura at the Oyado Furuya ryokan.
We loved Myoko and had excellent snow conditions over the 8 days of skiing. We had one of the biggest snow seasons ever in Myoko with the season snowfall total a bit over 17 metres (measured at base level by Snow Japan) when we were there. My guess is that at the top they might have got nearer to 25 to 30 metres. The snow banks were huge and the village was blanketed in snow. One of our reasons for going to Myoko was its outstanding snowfall history. It always gets more snow than Hakuba, Nozawa, Niseko or just about anywhere on the planet.

Various thoughts and opinions about the skiing at Myoko: 
Myoko Kogen is actually four separate areas, two of which are linked. The other two require bus or taxi transport which is not ideal.
After sampling all four areas, we found that Myoko Suginohara was the best as it had the highest lift, biggest vertical and longest runs. Akakura Onsen and Akakura Kanko were next but had primarily intermediate terrain so we didn't ski there much. Finally, Ikenotaira resort which is rather mellow and lacks challenge. 

The top part of Suginohara mountain has intermediate trails served by a quad chair with a couple more quads and a gondola further down the hill.
You can ski top to bottom on a village trail which is the longest run of about 8km but we rarely did it.
The mountain is mostly beginner and intermediate terrain with the occasional black run.
Advanced skiers might find the lack of challenge a problem.
The lift system was a mix of old gondolas, old detachable quads and old double chairlifts.  The lift network had some double chairs are no longer operational and the double chairs that are still going are from the 1970s and slow. 
Its obvious that there has been little money spent on new lifts for over 30 years. This lack of investment is repeated all over Japan as the domestic snow participant market has shrunk from about 18 million in the late 1980s to around 3 million now. The only resorts able to invest in new lifts are the ones that attract foreign visitors. If you have skiied at Big Sky, Whistler or Park City recently, the antiquated lift system might come as a shock. On the other hand, there are hardly any lift lines anywhere in Suginohara. 5 minutes was the longest wait time for the Sugi gondola at the start of the day.
Cheap adult day lift tickets averaging about $70AUD and less for seniors.
Snow was mainly good quality dry snow the entire time although there was new snow on 4 days when we were there, so we did a bit of off piste.
Lowish base elevation, south east aspect and biggest vertical drop in Japan (Suginohara) of a bit over 1100m (700m base and 1850m top) meant that we had dry snow on top half of the mountain but sometimes had lower quality conditions right at the base.
Excellent on mountain restaurants serving ramen and udon etc.

My thoughts about Oyado Furuya ryokan:
Fabulous location, near which is the main drag through the heart of the village.
Average indoor and outdoor onsens.  
Excellent western or Japanese breakfast. 
Large size room and beds were fine but low to the floor.
Helpful and friendly bilingual staff.
We used the lodge van to get to Suginohara on most days. The cost was about $20AUD one way.

My thoughts about the Akakura village:
Village is authentic, somewhat dilapidated and deathly quiet with not much activity going on at all. If you like a bit of lively aprea ski do not come here. It does have some ugly, run down buildings so its prettiest when covered in new snow. Similar to Zao Onsen but even quieter. 
Limited selection of restaurants that never required a booking.
Relatively easy to get to from Tokyo via shinkansen, local train then pick up by lodge van.
See our video here

Back in 2011 we wrote a review on Akakura that said “The lack of resortification of Akakura is a huge plus, as is the lack of gaijin. The little village still feels like the real Japan (albeit very run down in places), the locals are incredibly friendly..” At the time a key business owner in Akakura thanked us for saving their town and putting it on the map, because too many parts of the town were boarded up. Fast forward some years and now Myoko has seen a renaissance and it’s not really the “real Japan” and the “locals” are more likely to be Australians, yet at least the town is not falling down now (although there are still some abandoned dilapidated buildings) and Akakura feels alive again. I didn’t stay in Suginohara, Seki or Ikenotaira on this visit, but I assume they’re still delightfully sleepy hollows.

It's a tricky balance between it not being snowganville and getting more visitation to the area to inject some well needed cash. A few more lifts have closed across the ski areas, and during my stay, the top lift at Suginohara kept breaking down, which eliminated any decent lift-accessed tree skiing. So before I complain about Sugi being ruined by the recent addition to the Ikon Pass lineup, I’ll remind myself that the ancient lift infrastructure across Myoko needs a major overhaul.

It's unclear what the Patience Capital Group's injection of ¥200 billion in the region will actually do, and with swanky new accommodations in the area, “someone” will need to increase the ski area size and capacity to match the further influx of tourists. This year, the accommodation to ski area capacity ratio seemed fine. Whilst really easy-access fresh tracks disappeared quickly, the ski areas remained reasonably quiet and lift queues were not a problem (except at Seki Onsen on a powder day!).

As part of Myoko’s evolution, recent years have seen a strange new culture of putting your gear down to reserve a spot at the lift/gondola and then heading off to have breakfast. This is very different to many other parts of Japan. Thankfully nearby Madarao have put up signs to discourage this, but we’ll see how that goes!

The food offerings in Akakura Onsen seem to have got worse. Getting into a restaurant has become harder, so many izakaya style places probably think they can get away with serving up really cheap nasty food and labelling it as “Japanese cuisine”. Thankfully A.I.R. Myoko continues to be a breath of fresh air (see what I did there?!) in the Myoko food scene, and they’ve added some optional fish dishes to their multi-course extravaganzas as well as their plant based fare. If you want at least one decent feed whilst in Myoko, save some yen to go to A.I.R. for dinner.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to Powder Recon who continue to provide great Myoko powder packages. Bryce started in Myoko back in 1998 and he continues to lead by example for how guests can respectfully visit this snowy patch of Japan. And despite the ski areas in the region getting busier, the guides managed to find plenty of great fresh lines, although the very snowy weather was making it somewhat easy for them. With many lift closures in the area due to blizzard conditions or maintenance issues, there were adept at using their local knowledge to navigate the region.

Myoko has become more popular for good reason and one of these reasons is the abundant snow! I had the privilege of visiting in an incredibly snowy period. From February 5th to 12th, it snowed 3.1 metres in Myoko at base elevation, on the back of 78cm of snow from January 31st to February 4th!! It was a ridiculously snowy season and it snowed 16 metres (630 inches) from December to March. Thanks Puki Yuki!
See our video here

We did 10 days here Feb 24’

We got a train from Tokyo to Nagano then another train from Nagano to Myoko, Very easy from Tokyo.

The town was no where near as developed as other ski resorts we have been too but it was beautiful. Plenty of great humble restaurants to eat at a few bars to have a beer after a day skiing.

The resort buses were good and reliable other than 1 time when we were heading to Sugi and on this powder morning they dint run the 8am bus, but the next bus was only at 8:30am.

Terrain was good, nothing that steep & long in the Myoko resorts but still a lot of fun when there’s fresh snow each day.

We did get a bus which took about 35 minutes to Lotte Arai which was one of the most impressive lift infrastructures we have seen! It had amazing fall lines straight off lifts, if you want to boot up another 5-10minute walk it offers more amazing terrain all in bounds!
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I have just visited Myoko for the first time staying near Akakura Kanko Ski Area in a great self-catering lodge, Chalet Myoko. We were about 400 metres from the ski lifts and assumed there would be a free shuttle running so we didn’t have to walk with all our ski gear, alas there was not and the local buses charge 500-1000 yen for even the shortest trip. We also wrongly assumed there would be a supermarket in Akakura Onsen town about 1 kilometre away. The only supermarket was down near Myoko Kogen Station a 3000 yen taxi ride away. Accessing the other resorts such as Suginohara and Seki Onsen were equally difficult and expensive to get to. The only way to get around is to have your own vehicle. As for the epic snow we were unlucky as it rained for the 2 days we were there and that was in late January. There are better places to ski in Japan.
See our video here

We often get emails asking for advice that goes something along these lines. “I want to go to a ski resort in Japan with a cute village and some nightlife, where there is plenty of Japanese culture, lots of onsen, and it’s not overrun with westerners and snowgans (bogans at the snow). I don’t want to learn to speak Japanese so it would need to be somewhere with lots of English. I also need group lessons for the kids in English and need to stay somewhere with a room with ensuite bathroom and I don’t want to sleep on the floor”. It often makes us laugh that people are looking for a unicorn ski resort where they want a Japanese experience (sort of) but want all the ease and services they’d have if they went skiing in Canada, and without understanding that bars and international snowsports schools wouldn’t have a business if there weren’t some foreigners around. Myoko might be one of a handful of ski resorts in Japan that has a small village and the combination of Japanese experiences and accommodation if you want it, or fully westernised experiences if that’s what you want.

Each time we visit, Myoko becomes more international, and along with that it seems to lose a little bit more of its Japanese soul. At the moment, the balance is still OK, although who knows what effect the big Singaporean investment company will have on the region in coming years. It’s easy to see why many years ago, the Myoko mafia used to try and bully foreigners out of town. That’s not the case any longer and plenty of foreigners have bought old lodges and renovated them. This type of lodging has become popular because you get support from native English speaking hosts, and have the opportunity to meet others in the communal lounge.

We stayed in a cute little lodge, Red Fox / Kitsune (you can see our review here), and we could definitely see the attraction of having such friendly and knowledgeable hosts who drove guests around to different ski areas and to dinner in the evenings, and provided advice on other attractions in the area. It was just different to a couple of traditional ryokan that we stayed in many years ago, where we loved sleeping on the floor, soaking in the onsen, eating Japanese food, and enjoying the challenge of our poor Japanese language skills.

On this trip, the mostly SE facing aspects and low elevation of the ski areas came to bear because the temperatures had risen across the region, so the skiing was very average. We accepted that though, because on every other occasion in Myoko we’ve been lucky to score ridiculously plentiful fresh snow.

We were fortunate that we had a car on this trip, because many people were talking about the bus service that had become grossly inadequate. Prices had doubled, and one-way bus fares were 1000 yen between Akakura and Ike for example. We’d heard stories of people staying in Akakura and only skiing and dining in Akakura because the buses or taxis to other areas were too expensive.

Like other ski resorts that rely on international tourism, Akakura Onsen village had some Covid effects. A few bars had closed and there seemed to be less restaurants, so you had to go out for dinner really early if you hadn’t many reservations well in advance. One of the lifts at Kanko had been retired, which is a major blow for access for those staying in accommodation in the lower Akakura Onsen village, necessitating a dual resort pass or a bus ride. At least Akakura didn’t seem on the brink of financial ruin, like it did a decade or so ago.

See our Myoko overview for our thoughts on the pros and cons of Myoko Kogen, and also see the Honshu ski resort ratings to see how it compares to other ski areas. Note that we’ve rated Myoko as a whole as well as the individual ski areas.
See our video here

We visited from Sunday to Friday in the first week of March, and rode at Akakura Ski-jo and Akakura Kanko. The snow was excellent. There were very few people on the pistes, the lifts and the cafes/restaurants so we were able to get in a lot of time on the slopes. Unfortunately the lifts are old and slow, and the pistes are not well marked in many places - making it quite dangerous when visibility is poor (which it was at times). There are many, many green runs so its not the best choice for snowboarders (too much time skating) and this alone would stop us visiting Myoko again, but I highly recommend the Myoko Snowsports ski school for the kids. For a small village there are loads of meal options each night, good stores and services.
We didn't visit Suginohara as the cost of the shuttle bus made it too expensive for a family of four.
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Great zone during powder days
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We’ve visited Myoko multiple times and seen it evolve significantly over the years. 12 years ago Myoko had negligible gaijin, plenty of fresh powder & it looked like it was on the brink of bankruptcy with lots of buildings boarded up. Now there is some foreign ownership in town without there being too much, and it looks like it’s financially back on track despite the presence of some lodges that look destitute from the outside (even though they’re operational). Of course the region is only financially viable now because it’s had an influx of foreign tourists, mostly just in the Akakura Onsen village, which brings its pros and cons depending on your perspective. The Akakura Onsen main street can get a bit crazy in the morning and afternoon, with cars and pedestrians all weaving around each other. The long queues out the front of the Kebab 501 food truck are amusing, and somewhat reminiscent of Fergburger in Queenstown. Accommodation and food have got a bit more expensive, but there are more options now, and for drunken bogans, there are a few bars for them to hang out. It’s also much easier for Anglophones who don’t want to try to learn some Japanese phrases.

Meanwhile in the little villages at the base of Ikenotaira, Seki Onsen & Suginohara, it’s still incredibly quiet and there is plenty of the real Japan to be found.

Of course with the increase in visitation, the fresh powder lines are not as readily available in-bounds, but Myoko is still a good destination for powder hounds. True powder hounds can push into the backcountry to find fresh powder and there are lots of nearby Niigata and Nagano ski areas where there are fewer people, and even some ski areas where you can find old school fresh powder lines straight off the lift.

We stayed at AIR Myoko, which was a lovely lodge with a ski-in ski-out location at Akakura, that had a beautiful mix of Japanese decor & western comforts. The plant based food was scrumptious, even for us non-vegans.

See our Myoko overview for our thoughts on the pros and cons of Myoko Kogen, and also see the Japanese ski resort ratings to see how it compares to other ski areas.
See our video here

During mid-late February of 2020, and a 5 day stop in Akakura, we were blessed to wake with a 30cm+ layer of fresh over the entire resort. The riding in both Akakura onsen and Akakura kanko areas is a mellow ride. Nothing to give you goosebumps in this area but that’s not to say this isn’t a fun resort for the beginner/ intermediate ski/boarder. Fresh tracks all day and open area galore.. and.. no crowds!! Lift lines were near non existent in our time here and apart from what looked like the local schools having there lessons around, there wasn’t many others on the slopes. The Japanese group classes when you would cross paths with them at lifts would all move to the side and wave you through (in true Japanese style) as they wait for there group to reform. The 100 or so metre main street of town is a interesting little place but don’t expect to be spending to much time here as once you down a few crepes (must do at one of the 4 crepe places on the street), peel off your boiled hot spring egg, purchase your fireworks, there’s not a lot to do.. but that not what we are here for.. right... 😃
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Snows epic and the town still has a Japanese vibe!!!!
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