Yeah, me too. I’ve been here for almost a decade, and I want to share with you some things you should know before you decide to visit.

Top things to know:

1. Hakkōda is not a resort

This is very important to understand, because it means that a lot of things you might expect simply do not exist at Hakkōda.

• There is no town, and no easy transportation.
• There is no après ski, no restaurants, no bars, no nightlife, no nothing.
• There are no groomed trails
• There is no real ski or safety patrol
• There is no avalanche management

Read more of the details here.

2. The snow gets very deep

And that gets very dangerous very fast if you don’t know where to go. And you won’t, because there are no signs, no managed terrain. As most of the area is very low angle, if you’re not careful, or able to stay upright, you will get stuck. Those places where the terrain does get steeper, are even more dangerous because those places are almost all dead-end creeks. There are yearly fatalities.

3. Winter storms shut the ropeway down 60% of days.

When the ropeway doesn’t run, there is basiclaly nothing else to do but wait. The nearest actual ski resort is 20 minutes away but is basically not worth going to. The nearest “maybe worth the trip” resort, Aomori Springs, is about an hour’s drive.

When the ropeway does run, visibility is generally so bad, you are literally flying blind.

I’d say roughly only 2 out of 5 days at Hakkoda are enjoyable for visitors who do not know the terrain intimately.

4. What little tourism business there is, is not geared for non-Japanese.

Very few people in the area speak English.