Lotte Arai Resort

Snow is the headline: fifteen metres and more fall over a winter, light and dry, and the mountain is billed as a powder sanctuary. Groomed terrain is deliberately limited, most of the hill is left untouched, and there are gates into the trees and big bowls. The lifts are modern and quick. The hotel is genuinely ski-in ski-out, with an onsen, a pool and several restaurants, and the school teaches in English, which is rare in Japan.

Unreliability and cost draw the complaints. Wind and avalanche risk close the mountain often: there have been days with up to sixty percent of the terrain shut and no refund on the pass, even with only the beginner slope spinning. Intermediates get bored quickly: there is almost nothing groomed to cruise. The hotel is isolated, with no shops nearby and rare shuttles, so dinner means eating in, expensively. The resort is reckoned one of the priciest in Japan.