Zao Onsen

Zao Onsen is one of more than 500 ski resorts in Japan. It is located in the Yamagata Prefecture in the Japanese Mountains at an altitude between 780 and 1,661 m with a difference of 881 m. It is the nearest ski resort to the city of Yamagata. The main feature of Zao Onsen ski resort is that it is the second-biggest in Japan after Shigakogen with more than 50 km of slopes and more than 35 ski lifts in total together with Happo-One—Hakuba, Niseko United, Myoko Suginohara, and Hakuba Iwatake — all of them have the same number of slopes (but not the lifts). The resort is best suitable for easy and intermediate skiing — most of its slopes are blue and red. For advanced skiers, it offers more than 10 km of black slopes. The most common type of ski lift is a chairlift. The Zao Onsen season is from early December to early May in general.