A small resort compared to some of the others in the area. Lots of wide areas to play in if you like powder but depends on the weather conditions.
Hey just got back from an AMAZING two days at Yuzawa Park, right after the long long tunnel in Niigata.
The first day was snowy, with tons of powder. Sadly, a few days before we went it had rained, creating a layer of ice about 15cm under the freshie.
Regardless, snow conditions were near perfect. The best powder runs are off the highest two lifts. Off the (facing the mountain) top left lift, go left and traverse as far as you can, then cut into the trees for mostly untouched fluffy stuff. On the highest lift on the right-hand side of the mountain, go left (where there "should" be an OB sign), and jump into the best run at the Park.
Also recommended: The boardercross-esque humps to the right of the big jumps.
Finally, we got a 7,000 yen package with two-day lift passes, one night in their "Sportsman's Lodge" dormitory, and two big meals.
Enjoy!
This is the second time I've been to this resort.
I'd say I was only an intermedaite skier, and nothing here was deeply difficult. Though, two lifts to a hard slope were shut down, due to low capacity. That was the best part! Empty, empty empty on a weekday. The first time I went here was my first and only attempt so far at snowboarding, and the weekday emptiness was perfect for a beginner!
Perfect for a beginner to intermediate skier/snowboarder, good for one day of interest to an intermediate level skier.
Overall I had fun here, the snow park was great fun - 2 rails and 3 jumps all laid out so you could hit them all. Not much in the off piste area except if you hike up the mountain from the top lifts it's possible to get a short and gnarly run in before you have to worm your way through the trees.
There are a lot of beginers here, and also it's a really great deal as from the moment you check in to the hotel they give you a lift ticket, so we paid 7500 yen for 1 and a half days skiing plus night skiing, and 2 meals and accomodation. I only wish every resort in Japan had deals like that.
It would get boring there if you were there for 3 days or more. But for a short trip it is surely worth it.
I've tried this Sunday to take advantage of the one-day trip offer with the Shinkansen to go for some snowboarding. I took the cheapest plan I could find, which was for Yuzawa Park (10,800yen including the lift tickets) \r\n\r\nIt is said "what you pay is what you get". This could be applied for Yuzawa Park.
The courses were really short, the longest lift is just 550m. If you actually tried to speed up a bit you would run out of course in less than a minute.
Another problem that I encountered was that there were many newbies, and although it was snowing all day, no fresh snow was gathered on the courses cause all the learners just kept on pushing it away by pointing the board vertical to the slope.
Things changed in the afternoon and during the night skiing. The courses emptied and new fresh snow started gathering. By 6 in the evening the snow conditions were very good with even some fresh powder gathering in some parts.
The night lights were open also in the advanced course, which also had a small artificial ramp that you could catch some air! In general during the afternoon I had fun, although I was a bit disappointed that the course was short (about 700m at its longest part).
Closing arguments: It is not a bad place to go for a one day trip but definitely not a place to stay there for 2-3 days.