Akakura Onsen赤倉温泉スキー場

Akakura Onsen is the grande dame of Myōkō Kōgen — a hot-spring resort town that has been welcoming skiers for over a century, its lantern-lit lanes of ryokan and bathhouses climbing straight up to the lifts. You can walk from your futon to the snow, and back to a bath, without touching a car.

The mountain is as gentle as the town is old. Wide, tree-lined runs roll down at forgiving gradients — some of the most relaxing intermediate cruising in Japan — and the whole thing links to Akakura Kanko above it for a bigger day. What Myōkō lacks in steepness it makes up for in sheer snowfall: this is one of the snowiest corners of Honshū, and the flakes come thick and often.

Après here means the real thing: a soak in naturally heated, faintly sulphurous water while the snow keeps falling outside, then a slow dinner of Myōkō mountain vegetables. Akakura isn't chasing the powder-tourism crowd, and it's all the nicer for it. Ski gently, bathe often, stay an extra night.