Snowboarding in Japan

[GilliC]

My SO is turning 40 this fall, and he'd like to use the excuse to go snowboarding in Japan.

Since I am not a downhill skiier or snowboarder, I'm struggling a little to plan this. Ideally, I'd like to find someplace that has sufficient slopes for him to enjoy, but where there are also some other things to do/see in the vicinity, since I (and one of the friends who might join us) probably won't be skiing. I might consider taking a lesson, but I'd rather go exploring or relaxing. I do enjoy cross country on flat or moderate trails.

Neither of us has traveled to any of Japan's ski areas before, but my language skills are sufficient for getting around without too much trouble. At this point I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the choices. Most of the skiing guides are focused specifically on skiing, so I'm struggling to cross-reference ski info with non-ski suggestions.

Does anyone have advice or suggestions?

[just]

We went snowboarding when we lived there and booked through a local travel agent. I don't usually use agents for travel, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it for this type of trip - she had lots of great ideas and we got a really good deal that I'm not convinced we could have got by ourselves (although our Japanese probably isn't at the same level as yours). 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend where we went as we needed to go to a resort within a few hours from where we lived, so it was only ok.

[Brit]

I haven’t done this, but have always wanted to. I hope that you are able to get the trip worked out - I would love to read the recap! Good luck!