Packing? Have a look at the essential items we bring to Japan.

We know that the prospect of skiing or snowboarding in Japan is exciting, and we are glad that you have arrived at SnowLocals.com because that means step 1 of planning your trip is complete.

Step 2 is deciding when you should go to Japan. Hopefully this page can help you pick the best month for the trip you have in mind. 

Whether I am scheming to get an overweight and oversized bag past the airline check-in counter, squeezing onto a subway car in Tokyo rush hour, or wedging myself between a web of ptex and metal edges to fit in a gondola cabin, I can bet that the transportation I am on in Japan will be undersized. 

I thought it was strange that the little baggage car towing, golf cart-like, vehicle-etts had snow plows on them when I first flew into Sapporo. I was in a funny but exciting country, and I dropped all expectations I previously had of the weeks to come.

Rusutsu Resort - Walk outside and hop on the gondola, then ride up another chair, get some face shots on a cleared run or navigate a tree line. Make sure to bundle up because the cold air blowing off Siberia will frost bite your nose and freeze your face. But Siberia has also has brought the lightest snow you will ever ski. Only in Hokkaido.

Hakuba Cortina is a one-stop skier's paradise in Japan. Stay in the hotel at the bottom of the lift that will deliver you the snow you see here. We played around with a new high-speed camera during the winter of 2013 while filming their promo video

An oldie but goodie. A few years ago we stumbled upon one of the local Sapporo ski areas called Teine. It turned out to be a hidden gem with quick and steep sidecoountry laps that lead right back to the lift. You’d think that with 2 million people just 30 minutes away from Teine's parking lot that the resort would occasionally be tracked… Think again.

One of our favorites; 2013 promo video we made for Rusutsu Resort. This has it all, and the snow that year was the deepest so far!