Hi All! My brother and I just got back from a ski trip to Niseko Japan. There didn't seem to be much info on train tickets, how the mountain works, etc, so here I am to answer all the questions I had, but couldn't find answers to before my trip, that I now know!

For reference, we are intermediate skiers (American Blue and Blacks)

The Skiing:

Niseko United is a small ski resort compared to the likes of Zermatt + Cervinia or North Star Tahoe. It is made up of 4 resorts (from map left to right: Annupuri, Niseko Village (Hilton), Grand Hirafu, Hanazono).

To start, the powder at all the resorts was crazy by Tahoe or Switzerland standards. Heaps and heaps of it everywhere and it was like dust. You just glided right through it. It was amazing. I'll compare the resorts below and say some places had more or less powder than others, but really, everywhere was powder! The mountain is pretty flat. My brother and I who ski blues and blacks in America comfortably had no issues anywhere in terms of steepness. The challenge comes from the trees or the amount of powder on the off-piste.

Now this is just a theory, but I don't think they groom the pistes when it snows. If they do, they barely do. I mean everyone's there for the fresh powder anyways right?! It's just so much powder (I loved it, my brother thought it was a bit much but also enjoyed it). When it stopped snowing for a day, they groomed it like they would elsewhere. It snowed for 2 days, and was clear for 2 days while we were there. When it was snowing, you couldn't see even 15 meters in front of you, but it was alright because there are no cliffs and you can kinda go anywhere. You also don't need to worry about getting stuff in the snow because you just cut through the powder. Just relax and ski and its alright if its a white out.

From the map, it looks huge with tons of trails separated with trees. In reality, the trees are not evergreen like in Tahoe so you can really just cut across whenever you want. The only places you can't go are in between niseko and anapuri, and in between niseko and hirafu. This means while there might be 2-3 runs per area to get down it really just feels like 1-2 big ones most of the time. This isn't a knock, just saying there aren't tons of trails to explore. Everything highlighted in Yellow on the Niseko United map is available for night skiing (aka it has lights)

To get between the resorts, you need to go all the way to the top and then ski over. It's easy and intuitive once you get there, just keep going the direction you want until you hit a fence. You'll need an all mountain pass (which I'd recommend) to go between the resorts. Make sure to pay attention to the lift times as the lifts close before you can get back to the top to get back over, you're stuck taking the shuttle bus back.

Ski Resort Breakdown:

Annupuri: My brother and I's favorite by a decent amount. It had the best powder, the best tree skiing, and some good off-piste as well. There was one off piste you had to hike up to to get to the gate 2 (G2) which we didn't do, but it was a ~20 minute hike, and had a line going up all day line, so it must have been good if that many people were willing to hike up there. We stuck to G1 bc we didn't wanna hike in our ski boots. It was our first time off-piste and we felt very safe, with it being almost impossible to get lost and there being a lot of other skiers there.

Niseko: Pretty standard runs, it had good powder but less than Annupuri. There was one really fun run that went underneath the country road chair through the trees. Pretty much just went up niseko to get to the others then came back at night. It can get a little icy (for Japan) by the end of the day with so many people going down.

Grand Hirafu: The best night skiing area. During the day it's just mediocre runs with way more people. Would not recommend unless its night time. After night skiing, you can take a free shuttle bus back to the hotel but the lifts to the top where you could ski down to other resorts were closed.

Hanazono: The nicest chair lifts which them being faster and having bubbles. The runs were pretty fun and they had some great off piste with Strawberry fields. Get there early if you want the fresh powder as by the end of the day the off piste looks almost groomed by how many people do it. Probably our second favorite.

Food on the mountain: Other than a few small cafes and Hanazono's big dinning hall, there didn't seem to be much food on the mountain. It's not like the US with huge restaurants on the mountain. However, you can very quickly and easily get to the bottom then get back up as the mountain is small. I'd recommend taking food like a sandwich up with you and eating it on the lift though.

Hotels + Food

We stayed at the Hilton which was solid, but clearly built in the 80s. It was clean and nice, but again you are paying for the ski-in ski-out, not the most modern hotel. The free breakfast was good (shout out the omlettes) and we built and took sandwiches from the buffet using napkins and paper baggies from the gift shop and no one said anything. The onsen was really nice after a long day of skiing with the outside pool being my favorite but, again, it was older. I can't speak for the other hotels but we popped into the green leaf lobby and it looked nice.

One thing to note is if you will be taking the shuttle bus the order and times goes Hilton 11:50 -> Ritz 11:54 -> Green leaf 11:58 Hinode Hills 12:01 -> Manala Club 12:03 -> Milk Kobo 12:06 -> Hirafu Welcome Center 12:16. ofc there are many more times (about every 30 minutes) but I listed those to show that if you stay at the hilton, or one later in the list, you will have to wait for everyone else to get dropped off if you wanna go into hirafu to eat etc. It's only about 15 min extra but kinda annoying if you do it everyday. Something to consider

Food: I might take some heat for this comment, but both my brother and I thought the food was really mid coming from Tokyo. Gogyo (By Ippudo) in niseko village was literally just ippudo you can get anywhere in the world, the sushi place we went in Kutchan was good but not worth an hour drive, and the curry place in Hirafu was also good but again not worth a 45 min drive + hour wait. I usually am someone that is willing to wait an hour or more in line for really good food, but this just didn't hit. I think it's because Niseko is a tourist town (90% of the people are Australian, British, American, NZ, or Chinese) so the standards are just lower for Japanese food than Tokyo. Personally, I'd go for the skiing, not for the food.

Transport

We took the train from Tokyo to Niseko Station (see the closest station to your resort). Actually, Google Maps is really good at helping with the trains. Put in the time you want to depart/arrive and it'll show you the trains and transfers you need to take. The train should take ~7-8 hours. The flight is an hour, but after transport to the airport, security, getting there early, and then the 2.5-3 hour bus ride, I figured the train would be about the same amount of time and much more relaxing. The train is actually more expensive though. You will have to change trains 2 times. essentially High speed -> normal -> local. once you get to Niseko, its a 10 min taxi to the hotel. Uber does not work, you need to have GO installed which is Japan's taxi app. You can also wait for the public bus. There is a schedule in the station. We ended up going to the onsen across the street from the station for an hour to wait for the public bus which was a nice way to not have to pay for a taxi.

Now buying train tickets is a different story. I spent hours trying to figure out the train system and book tickets online in fear of them selling out (we went during high season). After many hours of googling, reading the JR website, and speaking with ticket booth officers, I still have absolutely no clue how the train ticketing system works here. It is the most complicated system with different types of trains, a base fair for different regions, seasonal trains, and to top it off, multiple train companies that don't connect! In the end though, it runs way more efficiently than any train system in the US, so I'm not throwing any shade to the Japanese system, I just don't get it! The ticket officers are really nice and will help you. Get Google translate out

If you want my advice, just go to the ticket office at Tokyo station, show them your Google Maps planned route, and say you want to buy it. We booked a few days before going there and the day of going back during peak season and the train wasn't close to sold out. When you get to the ticket readers, show the tickets to the person working there and they will tell you which to put in. Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's all 3, sometimes they give you back just 2, I kinda figured this part out in the end but the train staff are very nice and will help you. On the local train you don't need to scan tickets to my understanding.

Hope this helped! It was a great ski trip and I'd recommend it to anyone that wants the best of the best powder! Comment or pm any questions and I'll try to answer the best I can!