Hanawa Ski Area is a ski area in Akita, Japan, on slopes between roughly 250 and 730 m. Its mapped area is about 1.6 km across, with 4 marked runs and 3 lifts (about 3.6 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 263 cm of snowfall a season, 173rd of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. Its winters are fairly steady; even the leanest, 2015/16 (182 cm), reached 69% of the average. January is usually the snowiest month, with about 81 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 5 km away measured 505 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 290 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −3.6 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 187th of 397 in Japan.
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Elevation range is estimated by sampling points across the ski area.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score deliberately excludes how much snow falls — it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind. Snowing a lot and snowing well are different things.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tayama Ski Area (Hachimantai City) | 12 km | 265 cm | 643 |
| Akita Hachimantai Ski Area | 23 km | 437 cm | 122 |
| Appi Kogen | 25 km | 377 cm | 211 |
| Soyumura 229 Ski Land | 29 km | 176 cm | 1356 |
| Okunakayamakogen Ski Area | 32 km | 185 cm | 1281 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 57% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 46 cm, about the same as the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 263 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 182 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 334 cm (1.8 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan, the leanest winter was the same 2015/16: bad winters tend to hit a whole region at once.
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Run map
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
65% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift3
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
Appi and Hachimantai webcams & snow report — all 11 ski areas →
What was actually measured nearby
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 鹿角 weather station — 5 km from this ski area, 367 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 505 cm |
| 2023/24 | 392 cm |
| 2024/25 | 567 cm |
| 2025/26 | 557 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 290 cm.
A weather station is not a ski slope. We picked one at a similar elevation, but it stands in a valley or a village. More snow falls on the mountain above it. We have not tried to guess how much more.
Source: Japan Meteorological Agency historical records
Worth seeing nearby
Places within 20 km of this ski area, for a day off the slopes or an evening. Chosen from those most read about on Wikipedia, favouring places with an English Wikipedia article, and listed nearest first.
| Place | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Yuze Onsen湯瀬温泉 | Hot spring town | 6.7 km |
| Historic Sites Osarizawa Mine史跡 尾去沢鉱山 | Mountain | 6.8 km |
| Ōyu Stone Circles大湯環状列石 | Historic site | 10.1 km |
| 大湯温泉 (鹿角市) | Hot spring town | 12.4 km |
| Towada-Hachimantai National Park十和田八幡平国立公園 | Nature | 13.2 km |
| Nanataki Falls七滝 | Nature | 19.6 km |
Based on the Japanese Wikipedia lists of sights in each prefecture, as compiled in travel-log-data (CC BY-SA 4.0). English names from Wikidata (CC0). The content of this section is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
Official piste map ↗Places to stay nearby
8 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 民宿 あんべ | ¥5,000 | 4.33 18 reviews | 4.8 km | ＪＲ花輪線 八幡平駅より徒歩０分 |
| ホテル茅茹荘 | ¥5,300 | 3.95 227 reviews | 3.5 km | ◇鹿角花輪駅徒歩１分◇東北自動車道鹿角八幡平ICより１５分◇ |
| 亀の井ホテル 秋田湯瀬 | ¥6,060 | 4.06 968 reviews | 6.8 km | 東北道：鹿角八幡平IC車約10分。電車：JR湯瀬温泉駅徒歩３分（東北自動車道湯瀬PA、JR湯瀬温泉駅、予約送迎有） |
| ホテルガーデン かわむら | ¥7,700 | 3.24 192 reviews | 3.3 km | JR鹿角花輪駅から徒歩7分 東北自動車道 鹿角八幡平ICより5分 |
| 感動鹿角パークホテル | ¥8,000 | 4.26 456 reviews | 3.4 km | 鹿角花輪駅から徒歩5分 鹿角八幡平ICより車で7分 |
| 四季彩り 秋田づくし 湯瀬ホテル | ¥12,800 | 4.60 2243 reviews | 6.7 km | 東北道【鹿角八幡平IC】から車で10分JR盛岡駅から高速バスで73分（湯瀬パーキング下車）【大館能代空港】から車で1時間 |
| 湯瀬温泉 六助旅館 | — | — | 6.7 km | ＪＲ 花輪線／湯瀬温泉駅より徒歩５分 |
| Ｔａｂｉｓｔ お宿ちとせ | — | — | 3.6 km | 鹿角花輪駅 徒歩約１分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
11 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 3.2 km
Nearest first
- Hotel Garden Kawamura Hotel 3.2 km
- 高瀬旅館 Hotel 3.3 km
- 感動鹿角パークホテル Hotel 3.4 km
- Hotel Boujoso Hotel 3.5 km
- Chitose Hotel 3.6 km
- あんべ Guest house 4.9 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Akita
- Ski and Soak in Japan: Which Ski Areas Have a Hot Spring Source Next Door, and How Hot the Water Is We matched 7,203 analysed hot spring sources to Japan's ski areas. 255 of 397 have one within 5 km, 145 of them at 42 °C or hotter, and 54 have one within 1 km. These are the ski areas that pair top snow with hot water close by, and the ones where the water is strongly acidic.
- Will There Be Snow at Japan's Winter Festivals? Three Winters, Measured Japan's winter festivals are photographed in deep snow. We measured what was actually on the ground during each one across three winters — and checked the 580-year record of a frozen lake that has now failed eight years running.
- Japan's Snow Huts Are Water Shrines. The Snowiest Towns Do Not Have Them. The kamakura is not a shelter from snow. It is a well-side shrine to a water god, roughly 450 years old, and Yokote built its huts on 6 cm of snow in 2024. We measured the snow at five towns that hold one.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52