Mountain-View Lodge — 5 Resorts 15 - 20 Min, Myoko

A renovated two-storey house in the snow country of Niigata, with 5 ski resorts 15-20min and Lotte Arai under fifteen minutes away.

Getting to the mountains

• Lotte Arai — under 15 minutes
• Seki Onsen — 17 minutes
• Akakura Onsen — 18 minutes
• Ikenotaira Onsen — 19 minutes
• Madarao Kogen — 40 minutes
• Nozawa Onsen — 50 minutes
• Shiga Kogen — 60 minutes

Most people who come to Myoko pick one mountain and ski it for a week. Staying here, you don't have to. Arai's famously steep tree runs are a short drive down the valley. Akakura's onsen village is eighteen minutes the other way (yes, we are smack bang in the middle of the best ski resorts!). Madarao, Nozawa Onsen and Shiga Kogen are all easily doable as day trips. You wake up, check the snow report, and decide where you're going.

The house sits in Nihongi, a quiet village in Nakago, away from the resort strips and the crowds that come with them. It's a real neighbourhood rather than a tourist street, and a genuinely peaceful place to come back to at the end of a day on the hill.

The space

A 112m² fully renovated two storey house. Two bedrooms sleeping four, with room for a fifth guest on a futon in the living room.

Downstairs there's a proper kitchen and an open living and dining area. The fold-out couch stays as seating rather than a bed, so nobody ends up sleeping in the middle of the house.

You'll spot it easily — it's the one with the bright blue roof.

Built for winter

Niigata gets some of the heaviest snowfall on earth, and the house is set up for it.

• Drying area at the entrance for boots, jackets and boards, so wet gear never comes into the living areas
• Reverse-cycle air conditioning in both bedrooms and the living area, plus a gas heater in the kitchen
• Fast fibre wifi throughout, fine for streaming or working
• Washing machine on site

Your own car, and why it matters

This is a driving base, and that's the whole point of it. A car is what turns a week here from one mountain into six — chasing the snow instead of taking whatever the resort above your hotel happened to get.

You'll need a 4WD with snow tyres. Nearly every hire car in the region comes this way as standard, so it's rarely an extra cost, but do confirm when you book. Pick up at Joetsu-Myoko Shinkansen Station (22min away) or Nagano station and you're at the house in well under an hour.

Two designated parking spaces are reserved for you and guaranteed for your dates, so there's no hunting for a spot after dark in a snowstorm. The car park is about 50 metres from the house with a short uphill walk in — worth knowing if you're travelling with young children or a lot of gear.

Food and supplies

The next door neighbour owns one of the local restaurants a 10min walk away - it's very highly rated and well worth a try - called Nakago Cumin. There's also a cafe at the local Nihongi Train Station, and a Japanese BBQ restaurant two doors up from the other restaurant. A Daily Yamazaki is three minutes' drive or a fifteen-minute walk for basics and morning coffee. Several full supermarkets are eight to nine minutes away, so cooking at the house is easy. Akakura and the surrounding villages have plenty of restaurants and izakaya when you'd rather not.

Onsen

You're in one of Japan's great hot spring regions. Akakura, Lotte Arai, Seki and Ikenotaira all have public onsen within twenty minutes, and soaking after a day in deep snow is not something to skip.

Booking direct

Booking through this site means dealing with the owner rather than a platform. Questions get answered by someone who knows the house, the roads and the mountains. Planning a longer stay or travelling outside the ski season? Get in touch and we'll work something out.