ARAI SNOW RESORT is a ski area in Niigata, Japan. The terrain spans roughly 289–1147 m above sea level. The mapped ski area covers about 4.8 km². Within 3.1 km of the centre, the map shows 15 marked runs and 5 lifts, totalling about 16 km of piste. There is no settled snow at the moment — the season has not started here yet. Over the last three winters the ERA5 reanalysis gives it 725 cm of snowfall a season, 11th (tied) of the 3,112 ski areas we measure worldwide. The model runs well below what resorts report, so the ranking is the meaningful part rather than the centimetre figure. The nearest city of any size is Nagano, about 38 km away. 2 official live cameras are linked below. 131 other ski areas lie within 120 km. Snow figures and the Powder Score are recalculated every day.
Elevation range is estimated by sampling points across the ski area.
Score breakdown
Powder Score v1.0.0
7-day outlook
| Date | Snow | Temp | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🌦️ 27 Sept | 0 | 15.5 / 20.2 | 4.9 |
| 🌧️ 28 Sept | 0 | 17.4 / 19.9 | 7 |
| 🌧️ 29 Sept | 0 | 13.2 / 16.9 | 6.8 |
| ☁️ 30 Sept | 0 | 12.6 / 20.1 | 7.5 |
| 🌦️ 1 Oct | 0 | 12.1 / 21 | 12.3 |
| 🌦️ 2 Oct | 0 | 8.4 / 13.5 | 15.2 |
| 🌦️ 3 Oct | 0 | 7.5 / 14.1 | 9.6 |
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Run map
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
88% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift4
- Gondola1
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
Live Cameras
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. The nearest live view is the road below.
Road conditions decide whether you can get there at all. Check before you leave.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Myoko and Joetsu webcams & snow report — all 10 ski areas →
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,112 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
The tick marks the median across the 395 Japanese ski areas. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score deliberately excludes how much snow falls — it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind. Snowing a lot and snowing well are different things.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charmant Hiuchi Snow Resort | 7.9 km | 725 cm | 11 |
| Kyukamura Myoko | 8.9 km | 466 cm | 96 |
| Seki Onsen Ski Area | 9.3 km | 748 cm | 9 |
| Akakura Onsen Ski Area | 10 km | 466 cm | 96 |
| Akakura Kanko Ski Resort | 11 km | 466 cm | 96 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 36% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (51%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: March brings 87 cm, more than the median of 45 cm.
What was actually measured nearby
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 関山 weather station — 8.5 km from this ski area, 368 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 775 cm |
| 2023/24 | 625 cm |
| 2024/25 | 1016 cm |
| 2025/26 | 684 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 725 cm.
A weather station is not a ski slope. We picked one at a similar elevation, but it stands in a valley or a village. More snow falls on the mountain above it. We have not tried to guess how much more.
Source: Japan Meteorological Agency historical records
Worth seeing nearby
Places within 20 km of this ski area, for a day off the slopes or an evening. Chosen from those most read about on Wikipedia, favouring places with an English Wikipedia article, and listed nearest first.
| Place | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Myōkō妙高山 | Mountain | 11.6 km |
| Takada Castle高田城 | Historic site | 16 km |
| Kasugayama Castle春日山城 | Historic site | 18 km |
| Lake Nojiri野尻湖 | Nature | 19.2 km |
| Mount Kurohime黒姫山 (長野県) | Mountain | 19.8 km |
| Mount Amakazari雨飾山 | Mountain | 19.8 km |
Based on the Japanese Wikipedia lists of sights in each prefecture, as compiled in travel-log-data (CC BY-SA 4.0). English names from Wikidata (CC0). The content of this section is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
Official piste map ↗Places to stay nearby
2 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ロッテアライリゾート＜上越・妙高＞ | ¥5,280 | 4.25 1493 reviews | — | お車で新井スマートICから１０分、東京駅から上越妙高駅まで北陸新幹線で２時間、予約制無料送迎バスはHPよりご予約ください |
| ＭＡＨＯＲＡ西野谷 一棟貸し古民家宿｜新潟県妙高 | ¥25,000 | — | — | 上越妙高駅より車で約15分。上信越自動車道 新井スマートIC から5分 。 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
1 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Updated: 26 Sept 2026, 23:28