Japan · Niigata

Mikawa Onsen

三川温泉スキー場
Off season
Official site Lift tickets (official)
Snow and slopes at Mikawa Onsen
Photo: Tail furry / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

No snow yet. Not open yet for 2026/27. We have not yet found an official opening date. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.

Typical snowfall
363cm

A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →

Elevation
128–410 m
Across
1.0 km

The advanced Dynamic course is an unpisted mogul run that draws skiers early on the morning after a snowfall. Its upper section looks out over the Agano River. The access road from the prefectural highway to the car park has water running over its surface, which rinses road salt from the underside of cars. Sources: pref.niigata.lg.jp, niigata-kankou.or.jp, town.aga.niigata.jp (sources read 11 Oct 2026; an AI draft the site operator has not yet checked)

How much snow it gets

Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Seasonal snowfall
363cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
203cm
The middle winter of the 12: 367 cm. The best: 496 cm.
World rank
243
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
97
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
346
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 201 m, 565 m below the national median.
Quality rank
296
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
−0.9°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
44%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
23%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
19km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness 20
Frequency 67
Freedom from rain 35
Calm when snowing (model grid) 95

The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.

The quality score leaves out how much snow falls (it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind).

Compared with what is nearby

Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.

Ski areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Ninox Snow Park24.0 km567 cm54
Fuyudorigoe Ski Garden26.0 km302 cm472
Tainai Ski and Snowboard area33.0 km629 cm34
Fairy Land Kaneyama Ski Area33.0 km402 cm170
Sannokura42.0 km384 cm201

Compare side by side with Ninox Snow Park and Fuyudorigoe Ski Garden →

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.

Marked runs
8
Run length
4.9km
Lifts
4
Vertical
282m
Top 410 m · base 128 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvanced Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map1.5 km
Steepest pitch30°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs11.9°

Which way the slopes face

North 44%
East 1%
South 2%
West 54%

Only 45% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. The most common direction is west (54%).

By difficulty

Easy 4 · 2.6 km
Intermediate 2 · 1.2 km
Advanced 2 · 1 km

Lift types

  • Chairlift4

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.

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

The most snow falls in January. March brings 27% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. In amount, March brings 38 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.

97cm
Dec
141cm
Jan
87cm
Feb
38cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 363 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019/20 with 203 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 496 cm (2.4 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.

440
312
397
405
336
203
387
373
348
303
496
360
14/1515/1616/1717/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/2323/2424/2525/26

Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.

How these figures are made

Live cameras

This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.

Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.

Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com

What was actually measured nearby

Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 津川 weather station — 6.8 km from this ski area, 157 m below its mid-slope.

Three-season average472 cm
2023/24306 cm
2024/25591 cm
2025/26518 cm

The figure calculated on this page is 386 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

Hot springs nearby, as analysed

2 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 43 °C).

Show the sources
SourceDistanceTemperaturepHType
三川三川温泉2号2.1 km43℃ hot7.7 mildly alkaline—
津川津川4.6 km32℃ lukewarm8.5 alkalinealkaline simple

These are analyses of hot spring sources, not a list of baths you can visit. They date from 1910 to 2005, many from decades ago, so today’s temperature and chemistry may differ. Names are as recorded in Japanese. Temperature and pH bands follow Japan’s standard for analysing hot springs.

Source: processed from the hot spring analysis data in the Geothermal Information Database (GRES-DB), Geological Survey of Japan, AIST

Worth seeing nearby

Within 20 km in a straight line, nearest first. Some lie over a pass that is closed in winter.

Show the list
PlaceTypeDistance
咲花温泉Hot spring town9.3 km
五頭山Mountain10.2 km
五頭温泉郷Hot spring town13.3 km
Suntopia WorldサントピアワールドLeisure13.6 km
Lake Hyōko瓢湖Nature19.3 km
Tsukioka Onsen月岡温泉Hot spring town19.6 km

Chosen from the places most read about on Wikipedia, favouring those with an English article. 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

The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.

Official piste map ↗

Getting there

By train
Mikawa Station (JR Ban'etsu West Line): 40 minutes on foot, or 10 minutes by bus then 20 minutes on foot
By car
15 minutes from Mikawa IC via Route 49 (Ban-etsu Expressway)

Source: town.aga.niigata.jp · checked 1 Nov 2026. Shuttle days and times change with the season; check the official site before you go.

Going with children

Kids’ area
Not checked
Childcare
Not checked
Parking
Not checked
Rental
Yes (details in Japanese on the official site)

Checked on the official site (11 Oct 2026) · Source. “Not checked” means we have not looked yet. Compare with other ski areas →

Places to stay nearbyPR

Contains advertising. Property names and Rakuten Travel’s booking pages are in Japanese.

3 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within about 3 km of this ski area. The table shows the nearest 3 with a listed price.

Property (links to Rakuten Travel)Lowest listed (per person, tax incl.)RatingDistanceGetting there
三川温泉 新かい荘 ¥7,7004.17/5 37 reviews1.9 km三川駅よりお車にて7~8分
Pick dates and guests to check rooms on Rakuten Travel

Prices are the lowest Rakuten Travel lists; a property name, or “Pick dates and guests” above, shows prices and rooms for your dates.

Contains advertising. Property names and Rakuten Travel’s booking pages are in Japanese. · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)

Places to stay on the map

11 places within 12 km of the slopes, as mapped on OpenStreetMap, many of them small inns and pensions. Many are not on booking sites — open the name for the website or the map.

Nearest: 5.9 km

Show the nearest places

Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗ · Rakuten Travelad ↗

“ad” marks links that pay us a commission if you book. Links without it are not affiliated.

Guides covering Niigata

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