Hakuba with Kids —
Skiing, Snow Days and
the Black Slope

We flew out from Singapore on a Friday evening, landed in Tokyo at Haneda airport at 6am, and were on time in Happo-One for lunch. In between: fast immigration clearance (make sure you have the digital on-arrival QR code), a taxi to Tokyo Station, the Shinkansen to Nagano — 1.5 hours, top speed 280km/h, which the kids were very excited about — and a private transfer from there to our Hakuba lodge.

It was a bit of an intense journey with a short night's sleep on the plane and a few transfers, but the nice thing was arriving around lunchtime, getting settled, playing in the snow, and by evening we felt our holiday was already well underway.

Settling into Happo-One

Morino Lodge turned out to be a good base — a spacious Japanese-style family room (which did mean tatami mats, which I learned are not my favourite, but we managed), staff who very kindly drove us everywhere by van including drop-off and pick-up from the nearby slopes, and a different homemade breakfast every morning. Hakuba's main street has a relaxed, low-key feel, and we spent the first afternoon just walking around after lunch at Cubanos, getting the lift passes and picking up our gear at Rhythm Japan nearby.

The first evening was deliberately lazy with homemade pizzas in the lodge's living room. Our daughter, five at the time, was fighting sleep through most of it but made it through a slice before collapsing.

Ski School and Life at the Lodge

Both kids did half-day ski lessons most days, 10am–1:30pm, with Evergreen ski school at the Kokusai 1 lift. It was our daughter's first time skiing. Our son, at nine, went straight into the intermediate group. For our youngest's age group it seemed less about die-hard lessons and more art-and-craft with a bit of skiing mixed in — they had a whole indoor facility to cater for little ones and provided lunch there too — though by day two she'd graduated from the beginner slope to the magic carpet lift, and on the last day she was going up by gondola and chairlift and proudly skiing down in pizza pose.

The late afternoons were a different rhythm entirely. The lodge had a cozy shared lounge with sofas, a hot water tap, and tea and hot chocolate sachets — and it became a nice routine for both kids. Coming back from skiing, making their own cup of tea with sugar (or hot chocolate, if they had it), and then either curling up on the couch or heading out into the woods around the lodge to play in the snow and build snowmen. There was a lot of open, woody space for that. One thing to watch: there are monkeys in the trees, so keep food away from them when the kids are playing outside.

Evenings — the Asuka Izakaya

One evening we had dinner at Asuka Izakaya — an informal local spot with lots of food the kids would like as well. We went early, around 5:30pm, and by the time we left it had filled up properly. The food came quickly, the kids were happy, and we were back at the lodge in time for a shower before anyone fell asleep at the table.

It's worth planning ahead for evenings in Hakuba. Similar to Kyoto and Niseko, not many restaurants are straightforwardly kid-friendly, so I checked menus in advance to make sure there'd be something the kids would actually eat. Reservations can be made via Tabelog or sometimes through Facebook — Asuka I booked through Facebook. Going early (5 or 5:30pm) helps on both fronts: food comes faster when the restaurant isn't full, and you're not waiting around with tired kids after a long day on the slopes.

Family Skiing at Tsugaike — and the Black Slope

With ski classes fully booked one day, we took the shuttle to Tsugaike instead and skied there as a family — and it turned out to be one of the best days of the trip. Wide, beginner-friendly green and red slopes meant both kids could actually ski together, which doesn't happen much at Happo-One. We split up a bit too: my husband and our son went all the way up the mountain to tackle some red slopes, while our daughter and I stayed on the lower half and we met again at the base.

Our daughter had been confidently flying down the easy green slopes on her own. Then, by accident, we ended up together on a black slope. Steeper, harder to turn on, and her confidence disappeared quickly. She grabbed my ski poles and tucked in behind me, and later in front between my legs, and we picked our way down together with a few stops along the way. We got there, but the legs were a bit shaky.

Our son's favourite find at Tsugaike was a small wooded section off to the side of one of the slopes — little jumps and bumps among young trees, where he could weave around and catch some air. He loved it enough to keep going well past the point of being tired, to the point of running into a small tree at one stage. It didn't dent his enthusiasm at all; he's already asking to go back next year. My husband and I had a go too, mostly because he insisted — though what looked effortless on his shorter, lighter skis was a different story on ours. A few surprisingly high involuntary jumps on my first run through.

Hakuba vs Niseko

We skied Niseko a couple of years ago, when the kids were younger, at the very end of the season — quiet, decent but not powdery snow. Hakuba over Chinese New Year, a real peak period, surprised us by feeling just as manageable. Part of that is probably the way Hakuba is laid out: several distinct resort areas connected by free shuttles, so traffic spreads out rather than concentrating in one spot. Each area has its own character too.

Happo-One itself leans more advanced — which is exactly why the post-ski-school slope situation (see Good to Know above) is what it is. Tsugaike, by contrast, is much more family-friendly: wide intermediate slopes, food truck-style stalls by the gondola with stools to sit on, and a relaxed, lodge-and-restaurant vibe along the runs. We liked it enough that we've already booked to stay there next year.

On cost: Niseko, especially Grand Hirafu where we stayed, gets expensive fast if you want to be close to the lifts. Hakuba's spread of areas seems to offer more range — our lodge, similar in standard to what we had in Niseko, felt like better value than paying several times more for a ski-in-ski-out hotel chain just for the room and breakfast.

On getting there: Tokyo has more direct flight options than Sapporo, and once you land, the Shinkansen to Nagano plus a private transfer is quite fun and comfortable — the kids loved the train itself. Getting to Niseko usually means a flight via Sapporo with a few hours of transfer after, by shuttle or private car, with no train option. For us, Hakuba was the easier of the two to actually get to.

From Hakuba we headed straight to Tokyo for the second half of the trip — three days that included Disneyland, Tokyo Tower, and Shinjuku by night. If you're planning the same combination, it's a natural add-on: you're flying home via Tokyo anyway, and two or three nights there is enough to fit in the park and a bit of the city. That part of the trip is covered in the Tokyo & Disneyland with Kids blog →

What We Skipped and Why

• Snow monkeys (Jigokudani, near Nagano): We considered a day trip and initially held off booking full-day ski classes because of it — only to find ski school slots fill up fast regardless, so that plan backfired a little. It's about two hours' drive one way. In the end we prioritised the skiing, since the weather was good and there was fresh snow. We've already planned it in for next year, when we're staying in an onsen town near the snow monkeys instead of doing Disneyland.
• Public onsen: I looked into a few nice-looking options, but between skiing, dinner, and getting the kids settled back at the lodge, we never found the time. With a boy and a girl, most public onsens also mean splitting up by gender, which makes it less of a family outing than it sounds. We prioritised accommodation with a private en-suite shower instead — worth knowing that a lot of budget Hakuba lodges and hotels only have toilet-and-basin rooms, with the onsen standing in for a shower, so it's worth checking before you book if that matters to you.