Yakushiyama Ski Area is a ski area in Akita, Japan, on slopes between roughly 15 and 132 m. Its mapped area is about 0.7 km across.
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 160 cm of snowfall a season, 306th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (272 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2019/20 (91 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 54 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 8.2 km away measured 353 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 192 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −1.1 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 371st 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fujisato Choei Ski Area | 12 km | 200 cm | 1149 |
| Ani Yuguchinai Ski Area | 24 km | 280 cm | 574 |
| Ani Ski Resort (Mt. Moriyoshi) | 34 km | 370 cm | 226 |
| Matsumori Ski Area | 38 km | 351 cm | 281 |
| Owani Onsen Ski Resort International Area | 41 km | 233 cm | 844 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 37% 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 20 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 160 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019/20 with 91 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 272 cm (3.0 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 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
- Rope tow2
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 鷹巣 weather station — 8.2 km from this ski area, 44 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 353 cm |
| 2023/24 | 179 cm |
| 2024/25 | 452 cm |
| 2025/26 | 428 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 192 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 14 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 湯の沢 | 1.5 km | 14℃ cold | 8.6 alkaline | — | — |
| 長重 | 2.3 km | 9.6℃ cold | 6.4 neutral | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kimimachizaka Prefectural Natural Parkきみまち阪 | Nature | 2 km |
| Isedōtai Site伊勢堂岱遺跡 | Historic site | 6.2 km |
| Akita Prefectural Hokuou-no-mori Park秋田県立北欧の杜公園 | Park | 9.3 km |
| Garōkyō峨瓏峡 | Nature | 12 km |
| Subari Dam素波里ダム | Landmark | 14.2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| きみまち阪 壱ノ座 | — | — | 1.8 km | 二ッ井駅よりお車にて５分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
6 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 4.9 km
Nearest first
- 白神山地の麓でヤギのいるゲストハウス あわじ商店 Apartment 4.9 km
- 丸留旅館 Hotel 7.7 km
- Hotel New Matsuo Hotel 7.8 km
- ニューグランドホテル 松鶴 Hotel 8 km
- Hotel Yagi Hotel 8.2 km
- Sugawarakan Hotel 8.3 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