Kagura Area
Kagura Area is a ski area in Niigata, Japan, on slopes between roughly 971 and 1,849 m. Its mapped area is about 5.4 km across, with 15 marked runs and 5 lifts (about 8.7 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 542 cm of snowfall a season, 39th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2021/22 (679 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (241 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 177 cm. Snowfall days are cold, averaging −6.7 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 11th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Nagano, about 56 km away. Below are links to 3 official live cameras.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tashiro Area | 2.6 km | 447 cm | 113 |
| Mitsumata Area | 3.5 km | 589 cm | 45 |
| Kagura | 6.6 km | 565 cm | 55 |
| Kandatsu Kogen Ski Resort | 7.6 km | 618 cm | 36 |
| NASPA Ski Garden | 8.6 km | 618 cm | 36 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 54% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 95 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 542 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 241 cm; the biggest was 2021/22 with 679 cm (2.8 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
84% 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
- Chairlift4
- Gondola1
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.
Live Cameras
Road conditions decide whether you can get there at all. Check before you leave.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Echigo-Yuzawa webcams & snow report — all 18 ski areas →
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
3 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 38.5 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 貝掛貝掛 | 3.2 km | 37℃ warm | 6.8 neutral | — | — |
| 猿倉猿倉の湯 | 4 km | 38.5℃ warm | — | — | — |
| 三俣せきれいの湯 | 5 km | 32.8℃ lukewarm | 8.9 alkaline | alkaline simple | — |
These are analyses of hot spring sources, not a list of baths you can visit. They date from 1910 to 2005, many from decades ago, so today’s temperature and chemistry may differ. Names are as recorded in Japanese. Temperature and pH bands follow Japan’s standard for analysing hot springs.
Source: processed from the hot spring analysis data in the Geothermal Information Database (GRES-DB), Geological Survey of Japan, AIST
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Naeba苗場山 | Mountain | 4.9 km |
| Yuzawa Kōgen Ropeway湯沢高原ロープウェイ | Nature | 9.4 km |
| Kiyotsu Gorge清津峡 | Nature | 10.7 km |
| Mikuni Pass三国峠 (群馬県・新潟県) | Mountain | 14.2 km |
| Mount Tanigawa谷川岳 | Mountain | 17.8 km |
| Nozori Dam野反ダム | Landmark | 19 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
18 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 神楽ハウス | ¥3,500 | 5.00 26 reviews | 4.7 km | 越後湯沢駅よりお車 |
| Ｌｉｔｔｌｅ Ｊａｐａｎ Ｅｃｈｉｇｏ | ¥5,400 | — | 5.0 km | ＪＲ上越新幹線 越後湯沢駅よりお車にて約２０分 |
| ペンション レ・シャモア | ¥13,400 | 4.78 77 reviews | 4.4 km | 越後湯沢駅よりバスで約２０分・タクシー約１０分／関越自動車道 湯沢ＩＣより約１０分 |
| 貝掛温泉 | ¥21,800 | 4.68 311 reviews | 3.2 km | 越後湯沢駅よりバスにて25分。関越自動車道の湯沢ＩＣよりお車にて15分。 |
| かぐら ホワイトホースイン | — | 4.60 92 reviews | 4.3 km | 越後湯沢駅よりバスにて１５分、 「かぐらみつまたスキー場前」下車１００ｍ |
| かぐらスキーイン（Ｋａｇｕｒａ Ｓｋｉ Ｉｎｎ） ＾ | — | — | 4.3 km | 越後湯沢駅から車で約１１分 |
| ペンションＺＩＯＮ ザイオン〜理想の郷 | — | — | 4.4 km | 越後湯沢駅から車で１５分 |
| みつまたロッヂ | — | 4.07 28 reviews | 4.4 km | 上越新幹線 越後湯沢駅より苗場方面直面バスにて約２０分（みつまたスキー場前バス停下車、目の前です。) |
| ファミリーヒュッテ | — | — | 4.4 km | 越後湯沢駅より車で１５分 |
| ロッヂ ふくだや | — | 4.50 36 reviews | 4.7 km | 関越自動車道湯沢ＩＣより１０分。越後湯沢駅在来バス１０分。越後湯沢駅より在来バス２０分。 |
| かぐらみつまたコテージ | — | 4.29 28 reviews | 4.6 km | 越後湯沢駅よりバスにて15分、「みつまた中央」下車で徒歩1分。 |
| ロッヂ エルブロンネ | — | 4.50 36 reviews | 4.7 km | 上越線 越後湯沢駅 路線バス三俣中央下車 ／ 関越道湯沢ＩＣよりＲ１７を７ｋｍ 約１０分 |
Show the other 6
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ロッジ やしろ | — | 3.75 18 reviews | 4.8 km | 越後湯沢駅より車で15分 湯沢ICから約8km |
| Ｋ・Ｌｏｄｇｅ | — | 5.00 14 reviews | 4.7 km | 越後湯沢駅より、車で約１５分 |
| ロッジ チャーリーブラウン | — | 1.00 11 reviews | 4.9 km | ◆越後湯沢駅より車で１５分◆ 関越道を新潟方面湯沢ICみつまたスキー場方面へ 街道の湯 道の駅を過ぎたら左折突当り右折 |
| Ｌｉｔｔｌｅ Ｊａｐａｎ（リトルジャパン） | — | — | 5.0 km | 浅草橋駅（JR中央・総武線、都営浅草線）から徒歩7分 |
| ＫＡＧＵＲＡ Ｇａｒｄｅｎ Ｃａｍｐ ｜ ＣＯＶＥ ＾ | — | — | 4.7 km | 越後湯沢駅から車で12分 |
| ロッヂモントゼー | — | — | 5.0 km | 越後湯沢より車で約25分、関越自動車道湯沢ＩＣより約20分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
More places to look
What we have measured at Kagura Area
- How Accurate Is ERA5 Snowfall in Japan? Against 63 Weather Stations, It Reports About Half We compared ERA5 against 63 Japan Meteorological Agency stations near ski areas. The model returns 56% of what the ground measures — and the higher the station, the worse it gets. At 700 m and above it returns 39%.
- Yuzawa's 21 Ski Areas: Which One for the Best Snow? Four of the world's ten snowiest ski areas sit in one Niigata valley. In that same valley the temperature when it snows ranges from −7.1 °C to −0.3 °C, and the places with the most snow are the warm ones.
- Can You See the Snow Before You Go? Live Cameras at Japan's Ski Areas We opened the official website of every ski area in Japan. Just 32% publish a live view of their slopes. What most of them have instead is a highway camera run by a regional bureau — and it answers a question you probably care about more.
- How Big Are Japan's Ski Areas? Smaller Than the Alps, Snowier per Kilometre Measured across nearly 1,800 ski areas: the median Japanese one has 12 km of piste against France's 25. What Japan has instead is 25 cm of seasonal snow for every kilometre of run — more than two and a half times France and three times the United States.
- How Much Vertical Do Japanese Ski Areas Have? We sampled the terrain at 389 Japanese ski areas. A third span less than 200 m from their lowest measured point to their highest. And height and snowfall arrive together — you do not get to trade one for the other.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52