Have you already made your plans for this year's Golden Week? With cherry blossoms in full bloom and beautiful fresh greenery, it is the perfect season to go out. On the other hand, you can also feel the remnants of winter and realize that Japan is long from north to south. Above all, this year's GW will be a 10-day weekend. It will be fun to divide your schedule between the first half and the second half of the year. Let's make plans as early as possible for a meaningful GW. One of the activities we recommend for this GW is "spring skiing.
Some people may have a negative image of skiing, such as the pain of falling down, the fear of skiing, and the cold. However, the best part of skiing is the extraordinary experience of looking down at the clouds as you are rocked by the gondola, the silvery-white world you see when you get off the lift, and the exhilaration of skiing all at once. And the divine view from the top of the mountain and the thrilling feeling you get after skiing through without falling down is something you cannot experience in any other sport.
So, in late March, we, the Huynemu Ski Club, went on a 2-day/1-night ski tour to Lotte Alai Resort in Myoko City, Niigata Prefecture. We enjoyed spring skiing one step ahead of the others.
Panoramic view of Lotte Alai Resort
Lotte Alai Resort was opened in December 2017 by Lotte Hotel, the largest luxury hotel group in Korea. It has already gained popularity as a snow resort complex that has been admired by many skiers and snowboarders, and the reason for this is not only because it offers the best snow quality, but also because it has many other attractions in addition to the slopes. So what exactly are they? Let's take a step-by-step look at what it is.
This tour is a 2-day/1-night itinerary. The overall flow of the tour is as follows.
Day 1
6:30 Departure from Tokyo Station
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8:30 Arrive at Joetsu Myoko Station
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9:00 Arrive at Lotte Alai Resort and proceed to Salomon Station
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9:30 Transfer gondola - list to the top of the mountain. Start of morning session
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12:00 Break and lunch at Zetsudana Station
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13:00 Afternoon session starts
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16:00 Check-in at hotel, hot spring
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17:00 Walk around the hotel
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18:00 Evening meal
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21:00 After-party at the hotel's karaoke bar
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24:00 Bedtime
2nd day
7:00 Wake up
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8:00 Wait at the gondola station
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8:20 Arrive at the summit. Fast track all to yourself.
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10:30 Split into zipline and ski teams
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11:00 Zipline Experience
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13:00 Finish. Lunch. Hot spring again.
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14:00 Board the shuttle bus
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14:50 Departure from Joetsu Myoko Station
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18:00 Arrive at Tokyo Station. Dismissal
It takes only 2 hours from Tokyo. A free shuttle bus runs from Joetsu Myoko Station to Lotte Alai Resort. The ride takes about 30 minutes.
Salomon Station is located in Lotte Alai Resort. It is located just a stone's throw from the gondola boarding area, so it is very smooth.
Kids and adults alike can choose the gear that best suits their skill level, and the resident staff will adjust each piece of gear according to the day's weather, snowfall, and the user's body shape and conditions.
After arriving at Lotte Alai Resort, there is still time to check in, so go directly to the Salomon Station to rent a complete set of skis (snowboards), clothing, and boots. In addition to standard models, high-end models are also available. After changing clothes on the spot, we immediately boarded the gondola.
Fascinating Course Map
Here is an overall map of Lotte Alai Resort, the "holy land of powder. Note the purple-colored areas. These are all unpressured areas that are open to the public. The vast 1.57 million square meters of slopes are 5.2 kilometers long with a difference in elevation of 951 meters, and 11 courses are lined up. No wonder it is called the "holy land of powder" by many professional and amateur skiers and snowboarders alike. The group then disembarked from the gondola (Zendana Station) and took the lifts to the top.
The conditions were more than adequate for getting acclimated, although visibility was a bit poor due to the snowstorm near the summit on the first day. The morning ended like a training camp as we skied the "Be Free" and "Encore" courses. My body was exhausted. We took a lunch break at Sky Restaurant ZEN, a food court attached to Zendana Station.
Special spicy miso ramen ¥1,400
The restaurant is spacious and clean. I immediately purchase a ticket from the ticket machine and take a seat. Five minutes of waiting. The soup and beer soaked into my tired body. Why is it that the food at ski resorts (a.k.a. geremeshi) tastes so good? Needless to say, we finished our meal early. We exchanged comments about each other's skiing, such as, "You should ski that slope like this," or "You should lean forward more and bend your knees more. After a leisurely one-hour break, the afternoon session began, and after three hours of skiing, we were all exhausted. We finally checked in at the hotel.
The clean and spacious Lotte Alai Resort has four hotel buildings with 257 guest rooms, a hot spring, swimming pool, and banquet facilities. The total area is 3.3 million square meters including the ski slopes. We stayed in the standard "Superior Twin" room. The room was perfect, with a simple, relaxed atmosphere and a full array of amenities. We quickly changed into yukata (Japanese bathrobes) and headed to the hot springs.
The large bathhouse has two large indoor baths, a sauna, and two open-air baths. The hot spring water, which bubbles up from 1,750 meters underground, will soothe your tired body after a day of skiing. The mildly alkaline hot spring water contains high levels of metasilicic acid, which is said to be effective in moisturizing the skin, and is ideal for beauty and health. After an hour of relaxing in the hot spring, take a short stroll around the hotel.
This "Library Cafe" is a space where you can enjoy coffee and selected craft beers along with a vast selection of about 1,300 good books selected by Daikanyama Tsutaya. The books are half Western and half Japanese. There is a wide selection of design books dealing with genres such as fashion, culture, architecture, and tradition. The concept behind the book selection is "books you can read without thinking.
Space Playground" offers authentic bouldering, square trampolines, and a fun wall. Bouldering boasts 75 routes and the largest number of holds in Japan. The Wonder Wall, which is making its first appearance in Japan, offers a total of three types of games: a point-and-shoot game to protect your position from enemies, a shooting game to shoot down fireworks coming up from below, and a battle of war between two players, all of which are shown on the projection mapping screen. You can experience the next generation of experiences and ways to play. This is truly an ideal activity for multiple people, including friends and family. Of course, bouldering shoes are available for rent, so you don't need to bring anything. The indoor area is safe even in stormy weather. You can plan to ski in the morning and do indoor activities in the afternoon.
For the dinner you have been waiting for, go to "Ichiba Tatkarbi," a Korean restaurant located in the facility. The main restaurant is located in Shin-Okubo, Tokyo, and is so popular that some locals come to Lotte Alai Resort just to eat Korean food. I immediately ordered the famous "cheese takkarbi" with a beer. Incidentally, takkarbi is one of Korea's representative teppan dishes, consisting of chicken and vegetables intertwined in a sweet and spicy sauce. Tat means chicken and Kalbi means chicken on the bone. The center is dotted with cheddar and mozzarella cheese. At both ends are takgalbi filled with cabbage and other vegetables, sweet potatoes, and tteokbokki. We also enjoyed seafood pancakes and were very satisfied.
After the first meeting (dinner), the group that had not had enough to drink went to one of the banquet halls, the karaoke bar "San". The room was so prestigious that it looked like a summit meeting room. The whole group was surprised at the reaction of "Do they sing in a place like this? The reaction of the guests was, "Do we have to sing in a place like this? This is one of the charms of a high-class resort facility. After a lot of drinking, singing, and fun, we went to bed to prepare for the next day's fast track.
The next morning, we get up at 7:00 am. We checked out, changed into ski clothes, picked up our gear at the Salomon station, and settled down in front of the gondola station, which opened at 8:00 a.m. The weather was clear and sunny, and the temperature was neither too high nor too low. The weather was clear and the temperature was neither too high nor too low. Our hearts were racing with anticipation.
At the top of the 1280-meter-high slopes at 1429-meter-high Mt. To be the first one to ski the first track that has been pressurized with pisten and no one has skied yet. It is no exaggeration to say that there is no greater thrill than this. The visibility was also good, so I took the "GoPro" camera that I borrowed for the trip.GoPro HERO7 Black Limited EditionWe took some pictures of our members skiing with the "HyperSmooth". The camera's lightweight and cute looks look makes it stand out on the ski slopes, while still offering a full range of functions such as "HyperSmooth," which eliminates camera shake, "TimeWarp," which records images with a floating feel, and live streaming to social networking sites.
After enjoying the fast track for a while, we tried ziplining, which is the longest zipline in Asia. Zip-lining is an adventure activity in which visitors use pulleys with harnesses to zip from tree to tree on a wire rope. The zipline at Lotte Alai Resort is one of the largest in Asia, with a total length of 1,501 meters and a height difference of 240 meters, and it descends from an elevation of 950 meters to 710 meters in about three minutes. It is also fun to see how the zipline can be enjoyed differently depending on the weather conditions, such as rain, fog, or clear skies. The special wire used is 19 mm in diameter and weighs approximately 2.4 tons, and is safe and secure, as it uses the same high-safety system that was used in the emergency escape system from the NASA space shuttle launch pad. The first half of the ride provides a thrilling sense of speed, while the second half allows visitors to fully enjoy the mountains of Hoku-shin-etsu and the Takata Plain spread out before their eyes.
After the zip line, go to the tubing park where you will ride on a rubber sled. This is one of the largest tubing in Japan, and you will go down at a very fast experiential speed while spinning in circles.
This was the end of the entire two-day tour. After returning the gear kit to the Salomon station, we soaked our exhausted bodies in the hot springs, downed a couple of beers in the lounge, and boarded the shuttle bus back to Tokyo.
What did you think of this tour report? Here at Lotte Alai Resort, you can enjoy skiing, snowboarding, and all kinds of leisure activities until late May. For those readers who are looking for a different and unusual time, why don't you add this to your GW schedule? Spring skiing is the best!
Text_Jun Nakada
Lotte Alai Resort
Phone: 0255-75-1100
lottearairesort.com
