Tainai Ski and Snowboard area is a ski area in Niigata, Japan, on slopes between roughly 112 and 702 m. Its mapped area is about 3.4 km across, with 13 marked runs and 8 lifts (about 11 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 629 cm of snowfall a season, 23rd of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (914 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (261 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 239 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 11.2 km away measured 397 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 717 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −0.7 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 253rd of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Niigata, about 42 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 | 9.1 km | 567 cm | 54 |
| Yokone | 21 km | 446 cm | 114 |
| Mikawa Onsen | 33 km | 363 cm | 243 |
| Tenoko Ski Area | 41 km | 312 cm | 439 |
| Sannokura | 42 km | 384 cm | 201 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 26% 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. For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: March brings 61 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 629 cm, and 4 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 261 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 914 cm (3.5 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
Only 48% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift8
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. 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 下関 weather station — 11.2 km from this ski area, 374 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 397 cm |
| 2023/24 | 259 cm |
| 2024/25 | 502 cm |
| 2025/26 | 431 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 717 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
1 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 25.6 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 胎内 | 2.3 km | 25.6℃ lukewarm | 8.8 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tainaigawa Dam胎内川ダム | Nature | 5.5 km |
| Oppo-ji Temple乙寶寺 | Temple | 15.8 km |
| Suwa Shrine (Shibata)諏訪神社 (新発田市) | Shrine | 16.4 km |
| Shibata Castle新発田城 | Historic site | 16.5 km |
| Shibata Castle Ruins Park新発田城址公園 | Historic site | 16.6 km |
| Shimizu-en清水園 | Park | 16.8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 新胎内温泉 ロイヤル胎内パークホテル | ¥11,400 | 4.51 470 reviews | 2.2 km | 電車：東京駅⇒中条駅 最短約３時間 中条駅より無料送迎約20分（要予約） 車：中条ICより国道7号線経由で約30分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
3 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 2.2 km
Nearest first
- ロイヤル胎内パークホテル Hotel 2.2 km
- ときや旅館 Hotel 10.6 km
- 村上屋旅館 Hotel 10.6 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
What we have measured at Tainai Ski and Snowboard area
- Snow Quality or Snow Quantity: Why Japan's Snowiest Ski Areas Are Not Its Best Japan's snowiest ski areas see rain on more than one winter day in four, and the wettest of them on two in five. We rank all 397 of them on a quality measure that ignores how much falls and scores what falls: temperature on snowing days, how often it dumps, and penalties for rain and wind. It disagrees with the snowfall ranking almost completely.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52