Niseko 2026 Japan's Most Popular Ski Resort

Back again. It's January 2026 and what better way to start off the New Year's again than being back in Japan. We're heading to the North Island Hokkaido, but before that we're going to check a couple things out really quick in Tokyo. Got my snowboard. January is also the time when one of the best car shows in the world happens. We could see the most famous and best JDM cars on the planet. Welcome to the 2026 Tokyo Auto Salon. And stopping by Spoon Sports to meet its legendary founder, Tatsuro Ichishima. Yes, Spoon Sports. Awesome. And since we're in Tokyo before heading up to Hokkaido, gotta check out what some say is Disney's best resort, Disney Sea. Of course, there's no way I'm going in or out of Tokyo without visiting master sushi chef, Yuji. So glad to be here. Thanks so much, Yuji. After all that, Hokkaido, here we come. Here we go again. Japan has some of the best snow on the planet and Hokkaido definitely gets its fair share of it. We made it to the big city of Sapporo, but we're going to head to the mountains in the morning. Took a bus from Sapporo to Otaru and now a train ride into the mountains. Here we go to the hotel. And as always, being here in January, Japan never disappoints. They don't call it Japanuary for nothing. Welcome to Japan. Welcome to Niseko Grand Harafu Resort. Niseko United is comprised of four different interconnected ski resorts on one mountain. The other three are Hana Zono, Niseko Village, and Annapuri. Niseko is the most popular and crowded ski resort in Japan, but I figured we would check it out. And waiting for the clouds to clear, the strata volcano and active at that, Mount Yotei, looms over the whole area. You can see it from many of the runs and in the city. It's so awesome. Its beauty rivals even Mount Fuji. And right behind me is Mount Niseko Annapuri, part of the volcanic group of mountains, active but dormant, and the highest peak. Hell yeah, of course I'm going to climb it. Now everybody else I'm talking to seems to be part of a group with a guide and avalanche transponders, but it doesn't look that bad. I'm going to go for it. One of the signs just warns that if they have to rescue you, guess what? You're paying. Another view of Mount Yotei just sitting there behind the clouds. Hopefully it'll clear up in a little bit, but absolutely beautiful up here. Heck yeah, made it to the top. And from up here, depending on which way you take, you can access all four of the different Niseko resorts. I just have my phone. I'll try to get a couple of clips on the way down, but I don't want to lose it. And plus, no friends on a powder day, right? Clouds are starting to clear. We're going to get that view in a second. Here we go. There we go. Just cleared up. Beautiful shot of Mount Yotei. And of course, I'm looking at it through my phone. It does not give it any justice. Just a little preview. So when you guys come here yourself, you could experience this. Yeah. Cool. Ended up down at Hanazono, I guess. That was awesome. It's a good two feet of powder. A lot of it untouched. Wish I could have showed more of that ride. The descent was really cool. Untouched, beautiful. But now that we're in a different part of the mountain, let's go check out the base and there's a snowboard park. Here we go. Easy to video. I just went to the snowboard park. There was a couple of jumps and a couple of jibs. I hit one up there. It was just a basic long 50 50 flat box. I wish I had somebody to video it, but I mean, it wasn't that impressive. It was just fun to hit one. But yeah, here is the base area of Hanazono. Check it out. Big gondolas. Tin cedars. This place is cool, but it definitely gets the powder gets chewed up real quick with it being so popular. But yeah, let's go check out more of the mountain. Did a few more runs and then going to head up a couple lifts and try to cut over to Niseko Village. Cool. Let's get to the top. Looks like there's still a lot of untouched powder spots on this side of the mountain. Cool. Yeah. Cool. It's powder right here. Most of it untouched. That's cool. Here we are. We reached the Niseko Village and that's the Hilton, I think. There's a base gondola as well. An actual village part, Niseko yo. Let's go check it out. Here's a ski shop. Let me go check it out real quick. Cool. It's like you're walking around in the Edo period. There's a coffee shop and then there's a bunch of little restaurants everywhere as well. Here we have a place that has more traditional type Japanese cuisine. And it looks like we have a pizza spot right here. I noticed a lot of the prices on the menu were, I guess, what you would expect from a major ski resort. But if you wanted, say, a beer or something, I saw they were $10. You could take a left from right here. There's a convenience store and they have some very reasonable priced snacks and drinks if you want. Cool. Time to go catch the gondola back up. Here's a tiny gondola. Two chairs in the... Well, I gotta make it back to the Harafu base. That's where my bus comes. I'm staying in the town next over at Kuchan. I'm gonna head back over there. Bamboo. Back at the Harafu base. The clouds cleared up and you can see Mount Yotei once again in all of its glory. So cool. I'm staying at Kuchan. It's the next village over from Niseko. Easy bus ride to the mountain and there's a lot more options here, I think. A lot better options, I think, for lodging and then there's grocery stores, plenty of restaurants, and then ski shops as well. A bus will take you straight from Kuchan station to Harafu base with plenty of stops in between depending on where you're staying. And most importantly, there's a couple 7-Elevens in town. Check this spot out. There's nothing like a locally ran skate and snowboard shop. And with snow everywhere outside, they've got a mini ramp inside. I only snowboard because I used to skateboard first. So this is awesome to see. This is the source. I hope you enjoyed checking out the video here at Niseko United. And I'm not done. I'm heading to another spot that's not so crowded. It should be epic. In the meantime, check out these other videos I did here in Japan and I'll see everybody on the next one.