We knew that Onikoube was having a very poor snow season, but we were in the area so we thought we’d take a look at this ski area that otherwise looked very enticing on paper.

We turned up on a weekday and it looked like it was just us, lots of defence force dudes, and perhaps 20 other people, so undoubtedly they were running at a financial loss for the day. It was “men’s day” so Top Dog got a discount on his already cheap lift pass. I’ve heard of cheap ladies’ days before but never heard of men’s day, so we assumed they were pulling out all stops to attract anyone to visit.

It was the worst season Onikoube had experienced in a while. The official snow depth was 60cm and this was probably measured part way up the hill. The lower beginner slopes were very thin (and we saw photos of the ski area a couple of weeks later and the base was completely bereft of snow), the steep G course in the middle of the ski area was closed because there were bushes poking through, whilst the snow cover up the top was reasonable.

In the trees to the right of the top chair, the snow quality was quite nice. Elsewhere in the off-piste zones, there was a lot of undergrowth so we didn’t explore too much and we didn’t have our camouflage outfits on either! We poked around a bit to look at the terrain, and it looked amazing with well spaced trees and steep pitches in the off-piste zones, the backcountry to skiers’ left of the resort, and the backcountry in the steep zones where the summer cable car is located. Needless to stay, we had some difficulty in fully evaluating all the terrain scores reflected in our Honshu ski resort ratings.

Onikoube looks like it has amazing terrain, so this is an area we’ll keep an eye on and hopefully return when there is more snow.

We stayed at Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Kounkaku in Naruko Onsen. We were hoping that Naruko Onsen would be a cute little onsen town, and whilst this hotel and a few other hotels were aesthetically nice, the village itself looked really tired and run down. We stayed in a smoking room because that was all that was left, and as you’d expect for non-smokers, it smelled pretty bad. The room had plenty of space and it was nice that it had an ensuite bathroom. The hotel had a lovely onsen on the 6th floor that overlooked the town and mountains. The buffet meal choice was extensive and it was a shame we hadn’t done more backcountry skiing to work off all the fuel.
See our video here