Makado Onsen is a ski area in Aomori, Japan, on slopes between roughly 56 and 312 m. Its mapped area is about 1.6 km across.
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 182 cm of snowfall a season, 286th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (258 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (100 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 53 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 8.3 km away measured 360 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 212 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −1.4 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 347th of 397 in Japan.
Below is a link to its official live camera.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yogoshiyama Ski Area | 8.5 km | 231 cm | 865 |
| Moya Hills | 27 km | 339 cm | 309 |
| Hakkoda Kokusai Ski Area | 29 km | 371 cm | 221 |
| Kase Ski Area | 49 km | 234 cm | 832 |
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 30 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 182 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 100 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 258 cm (2.6 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 marked runs and lifts on the map, within 2.5 km of the centre of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Lift types
- Chairlift2
Source: OpenStreetMap (ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Difficulty uses the European grades, which do not map onto North American green / blue / black.
Live Cameras
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. The nearest live view is the road below.
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.
What was actually measured nearby
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 野辺地 weather station — 8.3 km from this ski area, 170 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 360 cm |
| 2023/24 | 262 cm |
| 2024/25 | 428 cm |
| 2025/26 | 390 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 212 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
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
4 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 38 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 馬門馬門温泉ホテル | 0.4 km | 38℃ warm | 9.3 alkaline | — | — |
| 野辺地港二本木 | 4.2 km | 24.9℃ cold | 7.9 mildly alkaline | simple | — |
| 馬門道馬門道 | 4.5 km | 32.5℃ lukewarm | 8.9 alkaline | alkaline simple | — |
| 野辺地野辺地町№10 | 4.5 km | 38℃ warm | 8.6 alkaline | — | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 馬門温泉 | Hot spring town | 0.5 km |
| Asamushi-Natsudomari Prefectural Natural Park浅虫夏泊県立自然公園 | Nature | 16.8 km |
| Asamushi Onsen浅虫温泉 | Hot spring town | 17.1 km |
| Asamushi Aquarium青森県営浅虫水族館 | Museum | 17.1 km |
| New Aomori Prefecture General Sports Park新青森県総合運動公園 | Park | 19 km |
| Futatsumori Site二ツ森貝塚 | Historic site | 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
1 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 亀の井ホテル 青森まかど | ¥6,780 | 4.13 748 reviews | 0.5 km | 東北縦貫自動車道七戸北ICから国道4号線経由で約18分 八戸より青い森鉄道にて野辺地まで45分、野辺地駅より車で約10分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
5 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 5.1 km
Nearest first
- 旅館コマイ Hotel 5.1 km
- 松山旅館 Hotel 5.1 km
- Fujikawa Ryokan Hotel 5.5 km
- 野一旅館 Hotel 5.5 km
- Business Inn Club Hotel 5.5 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Aomori
- Deep Snow, 20 km from a Japanese City — and Nobody Writes About It Togakushi gets 553 cm a season and sits 12 km from Nagano. Not one of these twelve ski areas has an English Wikipedia page. Here is what is there.
- Tengendai Kogen: Some of Japan's Best Snow Quality, and No Live Camera Snow falls at −7.8 °C, rain arrives on 12% of winter days, and the top station is at 1,860 m. Eight places to stay, and no live camera of its own.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52