Japan is one of the most amazing destinations I have ever visited. Alongside its unique culture, it must be the world’s food capital, with the most incredible cuisine available at every turn. It is also home to the best powder skiing you will ever find, thanks to its geographical location allowing cold, dry, candy-floss fluffy snow to flow in almost constantly off Siberia, the Korean peninsular, and Manchuria.
If that wasn’t enough, there are so many places in Japan that are accessible by train, including world-leading ski resorts; for an anorak like me, this was the very large cherry and most of the icing on a simply delicious cake!
We skied Japan in late February and early March 2020 (I know, right). After spending three days in Tokyo, seeing the sights and eating half of them, too, we headed north to Hokkaido to ski Niseko and Rusutsu for a week. Whilst my friends flew up, I decided not to miss the chance to take a bullet train and headed north by rail.
I mentioned in previous posts that I would have to come back and talk some more about planning and executing a Japanese ski-train odyssey - so here goes. This is how to ski Japan by train.
Where to Go
First of all, Niseko is not the only place you can ski by train in Japan, but it is undoubtedly one of the best. It is one of Japans biggest resorts, and its location on Hokkaido means it gets plenty of silly soft stuff.
But cross the Sea of Japan back to Honshu and you run into Aomori. The same train that runs to Hokkaido from Tokyo also stops at Aomori, and whilst the actual resort of Aomori is miniscule by even Japanese standards, the off-piste skiing available from the lodge there is phenomenal. It definitely punches above its weight in terms of experience vs. terrain, and is well worth checking out if you have the time.
Nagano is a city and prefecture that lies immediately west of Tokyo, taking about two hours by bullet train. From the city you can reach a pair of incredible resorts, both by train – Nozawa Onsen and Hakuba, the latter actually a collection of 10 resorts spread out down one valley. Whilst both resorts are on the railway network, Hakuba is better accessed by bus transfer from Nagano city, as the railway line winds back on itself something awful on its way through the mountains.
These areas a really accessible via the Joetsu Shinkansen, and act as Tokyo’s local resort because of their close location and easy accessibility from Tokyo by train. It is really common to see groups of friends, students and families with their piles of ski bags at Tokyo station on Friday evening or Saturday morning, heading west to Nagano.
Planning Your Journey
Planning a train journey in Japan is not as easy as hopping on The Trainline, punching in your destination and buying your tickets, but remains simple enough and should not put you off going to ski Japan by train.
Japan is a really modern, technologically focused society. But there is plenty of technology that is underutilised and it appears in really baffling ways. One of our favourite examples was visiting the “Museum of the Future” (actual name) in Tokyo. It hosts exhibits dedicated to technology, including robots and the internet. It is the home of Asimov, the humanoid robot, which we got to see and interact with whilst there. And yet, you can only pay for the “Museum of the Future” in cash … welcome to Japan.
First of all, plan your route. English-language route planning tools are available and are really easy to use. Pay attention though, as they will offer flight routes too, which we are not here for! You won’t be able to buy the tickets online, so print off your itinerary – ideally in Japanese but English should suffice and save it for later.
In order to purchase your tickets, you’ll need to wait until after you land in Tokyo. At Haneda airport there is a JR (Japanese Railways) desk, where you can purchase your tickets. This is where you’ll need cash, enough to cover the cost of the ticket and reservation. Have your itinerary to hand and show it to the staff on the desk. I found the English of the officials at Haneda airport to be absolutely impeccable, so there shouldn’t be much of a language barrier. You’ll receive several bits of paper back, including tickets and reservations – mandatory for the Shinkansen bullet train - so keep them safe until you need them.
Be sure to carry some coins with you as well for when you need to take the bus – essential if you are travelling to Niseko – for reasons I’ll come to later – and Hakuba. The buy-on-board ticket system is a culture shock; when you board the bus, take a ticket like you would in a deli. That ticket number will correspond to a number on a lightboard above the driver. Alongside this number, your fare will accumulate like a taxi meter; when you get off, hand over your ticket and drop the appropriate value of coins into the bin. Welcome to the museum of the future …
My Itinerary
This is how I skied Japan by train. My timings slightly varied, but I checked this using a route planning tool and it matched the route I took, with some slightly timing variations.
Leg 1
Dep. Tokyo (Tokyo Station) - 0632 – Hayabusa Shinkansen No.7
Arr. Shink Hakodate Hokuto - 1053
Leg 2
Dep. Shin Hakodate Hokuto - 1105 – Hokuto Limited Express
Arr. Oshamambe – 1214
Leg 3
Dep. Oshamambe – 1329 – local service
Arr. Kutchan – 1502
Leg 4
Bus transfer to Niseko - not bookable in advance
Total Cost: 26,650yen, roughly £130, excluding Niseko bus transfer
The Experience
It was a really early start from the hotel in Toyko; the itinerary above lists the departure as 0632, but when I did it, it left at 0600 sharp. Luckily our hotel was only two stops on the subway from Tokyo’s main railway station. The Hayabusa Shinkansen does also stop at Ueno, just to the north of the city centre, offering an alternative to the city centre Tokyo station if needed. Tokyo station is huge and complicated, even with all the signs in English. As a result, give yourself plenty of time, and don’t be afraid ask for help in finding your platform. Do not get confused with the Tokkaido Shinkansen, too, which can be mistaken for Hokkaido but serves a very different corner of Japan entirely.
I had sent my ski bag on ahead from the airport using Japan’s brilliant Takyubin (lit. Black Cat) luggage forwarding service. I cannot recommend this highly enough, them being able to send luggage anyway on the mainland within 24hrs, or to Hokkaido in 48hrs. It gave me one less thing to worry about when travelling, especially as ski bags are hefty and cumbersome. It can be arranged using airline service desks at Haneda airport.
The booking officers had put me in seat 1 of carriage 1. It wasn’t a busy train, the COVID-19 pandemic just beginning to pick up speed and crowds thinning in Tokyo as a result. The train was a shiny, duck-billed E5 series, which are really impressive to behold; their duck-billed nose helps them achieve speeds of 200mph along the route. Seats in standard class are arranged in a 3x2 format, meaning there is a good chance you’ll be sat next to someone else – don’t feel too offended if you don’t get a window seat either, as the train spends a lot of its time in tunnels meaning there is not much to see along the way! I would advise sticking to your reserved seats as best as possible, and certainly in the right carriage - the train splits along the way, so sitting in the wrong half could see you end up in the part of northern Japan! Make sure you grab some food to snack on before you get on the train, as catering options are limited, and remember, no phone calls are allowed in the passenger cabin (although this is more of a social rule than something enforced by the railway).
About four-and-a-half hours later, you will pull into Shin Hakodate Hokuto. This is a junction station situated out of town designed to link the Shinkansen to the main Hokkaido railway network. There isn’t a lot around the station as a result, but there is a useful little shop in the station selling snacks and some hot food, really handy after four or five hours on the Shinkansen. Keep an eye on your watch as the turnaround time here isn’t massive before you hop on the local express to Oshamambe.
This is where a window seat is ideal. The route winds its way through the southern half of Hokkaido, looping around extinct, perfectly conical volcanoes, some of them missing half their faces as a result of eruptions long long ago. It hugs the coast, too, and on a clear day the summit of Mt. Yotei, across the road from Niseko, can be see shimmering in the distance across the bay. The train continues to Sapporo, perfect for reaching other destinations on Hokkaido, but for Niseko you will need to hop off at Oshamambe.
At Oshamambe, you have around an hour to kill. There’s not a huge amount in Oshamambe, a provincial town on the east coast of the “tail” of Hokkaido. You can’t really go to the beach, as huge concrete tsunami barriers block access and support a highway on top. There is a supermarket, again selling snacks and some hot food and a post office to send a postcard from, but really not much to write home about.
My itinerary is only a suggested one, but there isn’t much wiggle room; there are only four trains a day from Oshamambe to Niseko and Kutchan, massively limiting your options. This is therefore one of the only routes that gets you into resort in good time, plus it will allow you to night ski that very evening! From Oshamambe, you are now on a local rattler, that weaves and winds its way through forests, passing tiny villages as it goes.
Here's the thing – Niseko is the closest station to Niseko, but you don’t get off here. There is no road connection between the station and the village/resort, meaning it’s a long, snowy trek with your bags to get there. This is echoed by the kindly automated announcements on the train, who remind you to do exactly what I did which is to stay on to the next stop of Kutchan.
Kutchan is the biggest town in the area, just a snowball’s throw from Niseko. It is where seasonnaires come for their big weekly shops, and hosts the hospital that deals with things that go wrong on the mountain! Once off the train here, exit the station, turn right and head to the bus station. There should already be a transfer bus waiting, with a cardboard sign in the window – in Japanese and English – advising you of the destination: Niseko. Hop on, take your ticket, find a seat, and enjoy the last 20-or-so minutes of your odyssey.
An it really is as simple as that! The Shinkansen network is being extended in coming years, hopefully tagging up Niseko or Kutchan on its way to Sapporo. Until then, skiing by train in Japan remains an adventure, but one well worth undertaking. No where else in the world can so many excellent ski areas be reached in style, speed and comfort. With other alpine countries reassessing the railway services that serve their mountain regions, and gradually extending service to aid travellers, perhaps it couldn't hurt to take a leaf out of Japan's book. Welcome to the Museum of the Future.
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