It's snowing today, just in time for the yamabiraki (opening of the mountain) event at Akakan today. It's not much yet, and there isn't a lot of snow in the forecast, but at least thins are moving in the right direction. Normally we'd have one branch-breaking heavy snow by now—but the local wisdom is that when it starts snowing this year, it's really oing to snow. Let's revisit this prediction later in the season....

The official (planned) openings for the ski areas are:

Akakura Kanko Ski Area (Akakan): December 17
Akakura Onsen Ski Area: mid-December
Ikenotaira Ski Area: December 17
Myoko Suginohara: December 23
Madarao Kogen Ski Area: Pre-open December 10-11; full open December 16
Seki Onsen Ski Area: no official date posted for this year (December 1 last season)
Tangram Madarao: December 17

These dates are when they officially open, of course; if there's no snow, they won't be opening; if there's heavy snow, many will open earlier. We'll keep you posted!

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All resorts closed