Snow and Shopping?

Yes, in Japan you can combine snowboarding and shopping together into one weekend. In fact you can do the both of them together in the same resort. Karuizawa.

We stayed in a cabin at the Prince Hotel. Very cool, a cabin in the snow, complete with big icicles hanging off the roof.

From the front door it was about two minutes walk to get to the ski lifts in one direction, and about two minutes walk in the other direction to get to the huge outdoor outlet mall thing. The slopes definitely aren't the best in Japan, but they are certainly good enough for a weekend of fun, and the views from the top of the mountain are pretty nice. And there is some pretty cool rocky mountains off behind the resort.

The actual ski slopes are pretty small, and so they get pretty crowded, probably the most crowded slopes I've seen here in Japan. And the whole resort is very beginner friendly, so a lot of time is spent dodging out of control beginners. And no powder, but still it was fun to just cruise around, and when you've had enough, you can go to the mall!

All in all a fun weekend.