How much does a ski trip to Japan cost?

A week of skiing on Honshu costs one adult sharing a room about ¥90,000 on a tight budget and from about ¥178,000 for a mid-range hotel week in Hakuba, by our estimate from 2026/27 prices. A week in a top-tier hotel with dinner and breakfast in Myoko comes to about ¥286,000. Those figures cover six nights, five days on the lifts, the train from Tokyo Station and food, and they leave out flights, rental, lessons and insurance.

We built each week from published figures in our resort, lift pass, stay and transport pages, all checked in October 2026, and we added a food estimate where no published price exists. Every input below carries its year and says whether it is published, computed by us or an estimate. Yen convert at the European Central Bank's rates for 9 October 2026, when US$1 bought ¥158.25, C$1 ¥111.24 and A$1 ¥110.48.

What does a week cost at each budget?

Line (one adult, two sharing)	Budget: Yuzawa	Mid-range: Hakuba	Upper: Akakura, Myoko
Train, return from Tokyo	¥13,800 to Echigo-Yuzawa (published fares, 2026)	¥16,900 to Nagano, plus ¥5,800 on Alpico's bus (published, 2026)	¥16,900 to Nagano (published, 2026), plus the onward train and bus
Lifts, five days	¥34,600 across Kandatsu, GALA and Kagura (published, 2026/27)	¥53,400 Hakuba Valley 5-day (published, 2026/27)	¥29,500 at Akakura Kanko (published, 2026/27)
Six nights	¥24,000 room only at Guesthouse Senwa (published, 2026)	¥69,000 with breakfast at Hakuba Tokyu Hotel's lowest listed rate (published, 2025)	¥231,000 with dinner and breakfast at Akakura Kanko Hotel (published, 2026)
Food	¥18,000 for lunch and dinner (estimate)	¥33,000 for lunch and dinner (estimate)	¥9,000 for lunch (estimate)
Week total	about ¥90,400	about ¥178,100	about ¥286,400, plus the local fares
In US dollars	about US$571	about US$1,125	about US$1,810
In Canadian dollars	about C$813	about C$1,601	about C$2,575
In Australian dollars	about A$818	about A$1,612	about A$2,592

Each total is our sum of the lines above it and counts as an estimate, since the food line is ours and the rooms move with the date. The Yuzawa lifts are two weekdays at Kandatsu, a web-ticket day at GALA and a 2-day Kagura ticket, with Kagura's express bus fare left out. The Myoko lifts are Akakura Kanko's 3-day and 2-day consecutive tickets. Hakuba Tokyu Hotel lists rates from ¥11,500 to ¥36,200 per adult with breakfast. At the top of that range the Hakuba week reaches about ¥326,300.

What do lift tickets cost in 2026/27?

A day on the lifts costs ¥5,800 to ¥11,100 for an adult at the window this winter, and Hakuba's ten-resort ticket is the dearest. These are the resorts' published 2026/27 prices.

Ticket	Adult day	Longer tickets	Notes
Hakuba Valley	¥11,100	5 days ¥53,400 within 10	All ten resorts and the daytime shuttle
Shiga Kogen	¥9,500 window, ¥8,500 online	5 days ¥45,500 window, ¥40,500 online	All 18 areas; online sales from 1 Nov 2026
Happo-one	¥9,800	not listed here	¥9,500 online
Naeba	¥9,800	Mt. Naeba day ¥11,800 with Kagura	Night ticket price not yet out
Zao Onsen	¥9,000 peak, ¥8,000 regular	3 days ¥26,800 at peak	Spring days ¥7,000, then ¥4,800 from 1 Apr
Madarao	¥9,000	3 days ¥24,000	Covers Tangram too
Mt.T	¥9,000	¥14,000 booked day, 9 Jan–28 Feb	Spring ticket ¥6,000 from 10 Mar
Kagura	¥8,500	2 days ¥15,500	Opens 28 Nov 2026
GALA Yuzawa	¥8,000 window, ¥7,500 web	not listed here	¥4,800 early-bird day on sale to 30 Nov
Nozawa Onsen	¥7,800	3 days ¥21,200	Night ticket ¥2,850
Akakura Kanko	¥7,000	3 days ¥17,200	¥4,000 spring day from 23 Mar
NEKOMA	¥6,500	not listed here	¥5,900 online
Kandatsu	¥5,800 weekday, ¥6,800 Saturday	not listed here	Night ticket ¥4,900

A global pass changes the sums. The Epic Pass replaces Hakuba's ¥53,400 5-day ticket with five free days. The Ikon Pass lists at US$1,099 for the Base Pass, about ¥173,900 by our conversion, and pays its way on a Japan trip at around 18 or 19 days of ¥9,000 to ¥9,500 tickets. Our Ikon and Epic guide does that arithmetic in full.

What does a place to stay cost?

From ¥4,000 a person room only at a Yuzawa guesthouse to ¥41,000 a person at APPI's top hotel, using the published rates in our stay pages. Rates are per person with two sharing unless the row says otherwise, and the column marked tier is our own band.

Stay	Town	Tier	From	What's included	Rate's year and source
Guesthouse Senwa	Yuzawa	1	¥4,000	Room only	2026, Yuzawa tourism listing
Bed n Onsen Hammond	Zao Onsen	1	¥6,000	Room only	2026, Jalan
Meitoya-so	Zao Onsen	1	¥8,800	Room only; ¥10,450 with dinner and breakfast	2026, Jalan
Yuzawa Toei Hotel	Yuzawa	2	¥12,100	Dinner and breakfast	2026, Yuzawa tourism listing
Naeba Prince Hotel	Naeba	2	¥14,475	Dinner and breakfast, full room	2026, Yuzawa tourism listing
Hakuba Tokyu Hotel	Hakuba	3	¥11,500 to ¥36,200 per adult	Breakfast; onsen tax extra	2025, Nagano Tourism Organization
Hatago Isen	Yuzawa	3	¥19,570	Dinner and breakfast	2026, Yuzawa tourism listing
KAI Zao	Zao Onsen	2	¥26,125	Dinner and breakfast	2026, Jalan
Akakura Kanko Hotel	Akakura Onsen	4	¥38,500	Dinner and breakfast	October 2026, the hotel's booking page
ANA InterContinental APPI	APPI	3	¥41,000	Breakfast, booked 30 days ahead	Stays 1 Dec 2026–31 Mar 2027, Rakuten Travel

Many ryokan and resort hotels sell rooms with dinner and breakfast, so a higher room rate often covers two meals you'd otherwise buy. Busy dates cost more than the "from" rates above. Hakkoda Hotel's dinner-and-breakfast plans start at ¥39,600 a person and run to ¥55,000 on busy dates, and Ryokan Sakaya in Nozawa Onsen takes winter 2026/27 bookings for three nights or more.

What do the trains cost?

The Shinkansen from Tokyo costs ¥6,130 to ¥18,110 one way to the ski towns in our rail data, for a regular-season reserved seat sampled on 16 October 2026. Double it for the return.

Tokyo Station to	Line	Time	One-way fare (2026, published)	For
Jomo-Kogen	Joetsu Shinkansen	64 min	¥6,130	Minakami and Mt.T
Echigo-Yuzawa	Joetsu Shinkansen	66 min	¥6,900	GALA, Naeba, Kagura
Nagano	Hokuriku Shinkansen	77 min	¥8,450	Hakuba, Shiga Kogen
Koriyama	Tohoku Shinkansen	76 min	¥8,450	NEKOMA
Iiyama	Hokuriku Shinkansen	98 min	¥8,890	Nozawa Onsen, Madarao
Joetsu-Myoko	Hokuriku Shinkansen	111 min	¥9,660	Myoko Kogen, Arai
Yamagata	Yamagata Shinkansen	161 min	¥11,670	Zao Onsen
Morioka	Tohoku Shinkansen	130 min	¥15,450	APPI
Shin-Aomori	Tohoku Shinkansen	178 min	¥18,110	Hakkoda

The last leg adds a little. Alpico's express bus from Nagano to Hakuba costs ¥2,900 on its fare table to 30 November 2026, and the Nozawa Onsen Liner from Iiyama costs ¥600. Free shuttles run from Echigo-Yuzawa to Kandatsu, GALA, Ishiuchi Maruyama and Maiko. Sending your skis or board ahead by takkyubin lets you travel with a day bag. Yamato wants the bag two days before you ski and sells a snowboard cover for ¥600.

What does food cost at a ski town?

Expect roughly ¥1,500 for a simple lunch and ¥1,500 to ¥4,000 for dinner out, by our estimate. We file a restaurant in our first price tier when a meal costs under ¥1,500 a person and in the second when it costs under ¥4,000. The budget week counts lunch and dinner at ¥1,500 each for six days. The Hakuba week counts a ¥1,500 lunch and a ¥4,000 dinner, since its room rate covers breakfast, and the Myoko week counts only lunch because the hotel serves dinner and breakfast.

Published prices in our pages sit inside those bands. Myoko Tourism puts mains at Restaurant Shibata in Akakura between ¥1,000 and ¥2,500. The Nozawa ski site lists Izakaya Tsukushinbo at ¥2,000 to ¥3,000 a person. In Zao Onsen, Tabelog reviewers report ¥2,000 to ¥2,999 a head at Kasheru's soba counter, and Jingisukan Lodge starts its lamb at ¥3,000 on a menu page updated in May 2026.

What does the estimate leave out?

Flights, airport transfers to Tokyo Station, ski or board rental, lessons, guides and travel insurance all sit outside the totals. Night tickets and onsen tax are extra too, and so are the Shinano Railway and bus fares from Nagano up to Akakura, which aren't in our pages yet. A guided backcountry day in Hakuba starts at ¥17,050 a person with Bamboo Tail and runs to ¥130,000 for a private group, and our gates and rescue guide explains why rescue cover belongs on your insurance.

Quick answers

How much does a week skiing in Japan cost?

A week skiing on Honshu costs one adult sharing a room about ¥90,000 on a budget in Yuzawa and from about ¥178,000 in a mid-range Hakuba hotel, by our 2026/27 estimate. Both include six nights, five lift days, the Shinkansen from Tokyo and food, and exclude flights and rental.

How much is a lift ticket in Japan in 2026/27?

An adult day lift ticket in Japan costs ¥5,800 to ¥11,100 at the window in 2026/27 at the resorts in this guide. The Hakuba Valley ticket for all ten resorts is ¥11,100, and Nozawa Onsen charges ¥7,800.

How much is the Shinkansen from Tokyo to the ski resorts?

The Shinkansen from Tokyo to the ski towns costs ¥6,130 one way to Jomo-Kogen, ¥6,900 to Echigo-Yuzawa and ¥8,450 to Nagano for a regular-season reserved seat in 2026. Zao Onsen's station at Yamagata costs ¥11,670.

Is Hakuba more expensive than other Japanese ski areas?

Hakuba's shared ticket is the dearest day in this guide at ¥11,100 for 2026/27, and it opens ten resorts. Single-resort days elsewhere run from ¥5,800 at Kandatsu to ¥9,800 at Naeba.

Is it cheaper to stay in a ryokan with meals?

Often, because many ryokan sell rooms with dinner and breakfast for a little more than room only. At Meitoya-so in Zao Onsen, Jalan listed ¥8,800 a person room only and ¥10,450 with both meals in 2026.