Mikawa Onsen is a ski area in Niigata, Japan, on slopes between roughly 126 and 388 m. Its mapped area is about 1.0 km across, with 8 marked runs and 4 lifts (about 4.9 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 363 cm of snowfall a season, 97th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (496 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2019/20 (203 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 141 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 6.8 km away measured 472 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 386 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −0.9 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 297th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Niigata, about 39 km away. Below are links to 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ninox Snow Park | 24 km | 567 cm | 54 |
| Fuyudorigoe Ski Garden | 26 km | 302 cm | 472 |
| Tainai Ski and Snowboard area | 33 km | 629 cm | 34 |
| Fairy Land Kaneyama Ski Area | 33 km | 402 cm | 170 |
| yanaizu onsen ski area | 34 km | 264 cm | 655 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 27% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. In amount, March brings 38 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 363 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019/20 with 203 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 496 cm (2.4 times as much).
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
Only 45% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift4
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
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
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.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
What was actually measured nearby
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 津川 weather station — 6.8 km from this ski area, 157 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 472 cm |
| 2023/24 | 306 cm |
| 2024/25 | 591 cm |
| 2025/26 | 518 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 386 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
2 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 43 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 三川三川温泉2号 | 2.1 km | 43℃ hot | 7.7 mildly alkaline | — | — |
| 津川津川 | 4.6 km | 32℃ lukewarm | 8.5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 咲花温泉 | Hot spring town | 9.3 km |
| 五頭山 | Mountain | 10.2 km |
| 五頭温泉郷 | Hot spring town | 13.3 km |
| Suntopia Worldサントピアワールド | Leisure | 13.6 km |
| Lake Hyōko瓢湖 | Nature | 19.3 km |
| Tsukioka Onsen月岡温泉 | Hot spring town | 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
3 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 三川温泉 新かい荘 | ¥7,700 | 4.17 37 reviews | 1.9 km | 三川駅よりお車にて７～８分 |
| 三川温泉 湯元館 | — | — | 2.0 km | 三川駅よりお車にて約１０分 |
| 三川温泉 叶屋旅館＜新潟県＞ | — | — | 2.1 km | 磐越道 三川ＩＣより車で１０分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
12 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Niigata
- Which Ski Resort Gets the Most Snow in the World? We measured snowfall at all 3,069 ski areas on earth the same way. The top two both shut in winter because they get too much snow: a Norwegian glacier at 783 cm that opens in May, and Okutadami Maruyama in Niigata at 765 cm. 46 of the top 100 are Japanese.
- How Japan's Early-Bird Lift Tickets Work: At Hakuba Happo-One, Eight of the Nine Need a Japanese ID Card Hakuba Happo-One opened early-bird sales at 10:00 on 1 October. A day costs ¥6,400 against ¥9,800 at the window, 35% off. But every ticket on the list except one needs a My Number Card and a Japanese phone app. A visitor from abroad can buy exactly one of them, at 15% off.
- Japan Lift Ticket Prices for 2026/27: What a Day Costs at Twelve Big Resorts, and the Weeks It Costs Half We checked the 2026/27 adult day ticket on each resort's own site. At the window it runs from ¥7,000 at Akakura Kanko to ¥16,700 at Rusutsu. Buying online saves up to ¥3,500, and the first and last weeks of the season cost up to half. For those cheap spring weeks, we add which way each resort's slopes face.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52