日本語はこちら

Introduction

When I came to Japan in 1992, I was lucky enough to be placed in Yuzawa Town in Niigata Prefecture. It was late July when I arrived, and Yuzawa was extremely hot and humid. I had been told that the region was known as ‘Snow Country’, but it was hard to imagine metres of snowfall by the side of the roads.

During that first winter in Yuzawa, I quickly fell in love with the skiing, the snow and pretty much everything about the winter months. I became fascinated with all the different ski areas. Many days were spent pouring over the Japanese language ski guidebooks, trying to understand it all and planning various ski trips.

Back then there was almost no information about Japanese ski areas available in English. To help spread the word with fellow English speakers in Niigata Prefecture, in 1996 I put together a simple printed ski area guidebook covering the ski areas in Yuzawa and Myoko. When the internet started to appear a few years later, I created a simple website called SkiJapanGuide and started to add ski areas beyond Niigata Prefecture. To cut a long story short, the website became popular and eventually SkiJapanGuide became SnowJapan.com.

SnowJapan has now been introducing the world to the ski areas of Japan for over 20 years. It has played a major role in bringing skiing and snowboarding in Japan to the attention of people around the world and the growth of the increasingly important ‘inbound’ ski market. The website covers every operating ski area throughout Japan in depth and publishes a large volume of exclusive and independent daily content throughout each winter season.

The operation now involves a number of people including contributing reporters who are based in the various popular ski regions around Japan.

Despite the size and influence of SnowJapan, I have always been careful not to compromise on the original idea and concept – honest and independent information that people can trust. And even now SnowJapan remains largely unaffected by business concerns.

I feel extremely fortunate that a passion and what started out as a hobby could become my life’s work.

What about closed ski areas?

Every year the information on SnowJapan is checked and updated.

During that annual process, there have often been instances of ski areas closing down for various reasons. Some found themselves struggling with decreasing amounts of snowfall. Some had ageing facilities that needed expensive maintenance work. Some saw the number of visitors drastically decrease after the ‘ski boom’ of the late 80’s. Some found it difficult to cope with increased competition. Each has their own story.

I have never been quite sure how best to deal with information on ski areas that close. Unceremoniously deleting the information from SnowJapan somehow always seemed… wrong.

Disrespectful even.

Whether they were large resort-style operations with many ski lifts and modern facilities or tiny local ski hills, they all deserve to be remembered and celebrated.

A lot of people were involved in the planning, creation and operation of these ski areas. So much time, effort and resources. And of course, countless people – including myself - took great pleasure in skiing and snowboarding on their slopes. There are many special memories for so many people. And some truly fascinating stories.

The question was, what to do with such information?

I had been thinking about gathering this kind of information together for quite a long time but never got round to it. In January 2020 I decided to do something about it. Rather than presenting it within SnowJapan, it seemed best to introduce this information from the past separately. And so, this new website….. SnowJapanHistory.

The main idea behind SnowJapanHistory is to introduce the ski areas throughout Japan that are sadly no longer with us.

To keep their memory alive.

Information sources

Finding relevant information on ski areas that have closed has ranged from being relatively easy to almost impossible. Some tiny ski areas closed before the internet became mainstream and many never had an online presence, so there is little to no information on them. (One more good reason to make this website!)

Sometimes there is conflicting information. Even the printed guidebooks sometimes offer different data about the same ski area. So, at times it has been difficult to know what is correct. A lot of time and care has been taken to try and confirm all the information presented on this site - at least double checking; preferably triple checking. Even so, some details remain missing or unconfirmed, and there is always the chance of some small errors.

Aside from my own personal knowledge and recollections, the information on this website has been gathered from various Japanese language sources:

• More than 50 Japan ski area guidebooks that I have collected since 1992. (I am glad I kept them all!)

• Older guidebooks that I have sourced and bought online

• Information that is publicly available online

• Old archived official websites

• Consultation with various contacts that I have in the ski industry thanks to my work with SnowJapan

• And in some cases, phone calls to village, town and city offices, tourist associations, etc
  
  

The number of ski areas in Japan

No one really seems to know - there does not seem to be any agreed definitive number.

As of June 2020, SnowJapan is listing around 500 operating ski areas throughout Japan.

It is thought that at one time there were well over 700 ski areas, which means that there are over 200 which will (I hope) eventually be listed on this website.

Perhaps one day in the future, between SnowJapan and this website we might get to the stage where all past and present ski areas are covered…. and find that elusive number!

Planned updates

SnowJapan remains my primary focus, but regular updates will be made to this website.

• Additional ski areas listings

• Updates to existing listings with additional information and adjustments

• Original photographs

At launch on 1st July 2020 this website was introducing 101 ski areas in 14 prefectures. Updates will be announced here.

Do Not Enter

Many old ski areas are located by the side of public roads and in public areas. However, some are not and cannot be easily visited or seen from public areas.

In researching information and taking photographs for this website, all Do Not Enter, Private Land, Private Road signs have been fully respected. If you visit an area, please do likewise.

Information, comments & errors

If you feel that you can help with additional information, want to send comments or just get in touch about the website, please use this contact form.

Wherever possible, information gaps will be filled, facts will be confirmed, and any errors will be corrected.

Images & photographs

Information about the images and photographs used on this website can be found here.

Technical

This website should display correctly on all modern browsers, but please note that some elements may not display correctly on older browsers.

The icon on the Google Map section of each ski area listing has been set to be positioned as close to the base of each ski area as possible. In most cases the icon appears in the intended position but it is unavoidably slightly off on some of the listings.

Finally…

SnowJapanHistory.com can certainly be seen as a companion to SnowJapan.com.

In contrast to SnowJapan, however, this is my own personal project.

There are no deadlines.

No pressure.

I don’t even know if other people will be interested in this information.

But that doesn’t really matter - I have simply enjoyed researching and putting this all together and will continue to do so.

Of course, it is sad that these ski areas are no longer with us. But this website is not meant as a downbeat look back at ‘better times’. In fact, quite the opposite. It is meant as a thank you; a fond look back to some different times; earlier chapters of the same story. A celebration of how amazing the ski scene in Japan has been through the years.

It still is amazing and working on this project has given me a renewed appreciation of it.

On that note, if you are interested in the current and future world of skiing and snowboarding in Japan…. it’s all covered over on SnowJapan.com.

Thank you.

Andrew Lea
Niigata Prefecture
July 2020

July 2022 update

Further thoughts after two years (posted on 1st July 2022)