Lotte Arai: a five-star resort in the Myoko mountains, with 951m of vertical

The five-star billing is not marketing gloss: Lotte Arai is a genuine international resort hotel, not a ryokan with a lift pass attached, and it sits above 951 metres of vertical, base to summit, one of the bigger drops anywhere in the Myoko mountains. That combination, proper hotel and proper mountain, is unusual in Japan, where the big vertical numbers and the five-star service tend to live in different resorts.

It very nearly didn't happen twice. Hideo Morita, eldest son of Sony co-founder Akio Morita, spent close to ¥50 billion building the resort in the last years of Japan's bubble economy, opening it in 1993 as Arai Mountain Resort & Spa with the explicit aim of building Japan's first world-class ski resort. It drew over 200,000 visitors in its 1998/99 peak, but the finances never worked: the Morita family poured in a further ¥23 billion trying to keep it afloat before it closed in 2006 and sat derelict for a decade. South Korea's Lotte group bought the site and rebuilt it, reopening in mid-December 2017 as Lotte Arai Resort.

The mountain

Five lifts, a gondola among them, serve roughly 14 courses cut across a terrain split that different sources put at slightly different ratios, but which lands somewhere around a quarter beginner, not quite half intermediate, and the rest advanced. What actually sets Lotte Arai apart from the older Myoko Kogen resorts nearby is not the piste count: it is eight avalanche-controlled freeride zones covering an estimated 80% of the resort, a genuinely unusual amount of managed off-piste terrain for a Japanese resort of this size. The longest run is given as 7,000m and the steepest pitch as 38 degrees, on a mountain built, unlike most of its neighbours, to a single unified plan rather than grown outward from an old onsen town.

The lift pass: not standalone

It's a common assumption that a resort this self-contained sells its own isolated pass, and it doesn't. Lotte Arai's day pass is its own product, currently ¥7,500 for an adult (2025/26 season), but it also sits on the Mt. Myoko+ 3 Day Pass, a ¥33,000 ticket valid on three non-consecutive days across seven resorts: the four Mt. Myoko Kogen areas (Akakura Onsen, Akakura Kanko, Ikenotaira Onsen Alpen Blick and Myoko Suginohara), plus Lotte Arai, Madarao and Tangram Ski Circus. A shuttle meant to link Lotte Arai and Madarao to the main Mt. Myoko cluster was planned for this season but is currently listed as postponed, so treat that connection as a pass benefit rather than a physical one for now. Separately, Lotte Arai is also on the Ikon Pass for 2025/26.

Season

The season runs from mid-December to 11 May, unusually long for a Japanese resort: most of the Myoko Kogen resorts close in early-to-mid April, so Lotte Arai's spring skiing carries on for several extra weeks after its neighbours have shut for the year.

Getting there

The nearest Shinkansen station is Joetsu-Myoko, around 1 hour 50 minutes from Tokyo when a direct service runs, and Lotte Arai operates its own shuttle from the station's West Exit, roughly 25 minutes' drive. Driving from Tokyo takes about four hours via the Kan-etsu and Joshin'etsu expressways. Winter tyres or chains are the norm either way.

Where to stay

There is no separate lodging town here the way there is at Akakura: the resort was built on a purpose-made site rather than grown out of an existing onsen village, so accommodation means one of the resort's own two hotel buildings. The Arai has 149 rooms, family-oriented, twin, double and triple rooms of 23 to 36 sqm, with a soba restaurant, bakery and childcare centre. The Lodge, plus its adjoining Club and Nest wings, has 96 rooms at a more upscale tier: deluxe twins of 40 to 42 sqm, deluxe suites of 75 sqm with a jacuzzi, and a 114 sqm Presidential Suite, plus a bar, karaoke bar, library and business centre. Both buildings share an indoor swimming pool, a walking pool filled with natural onsen water, a steaming onsen and in-house spa treatments.

For the wider Myoko mountains, including the older onsen-town base at Akakura with its ryokan-style lodging, see Akakura's own guide.

Need to know

Lift pass

¥7,500 adult day pass (2025/26 season), not a standalone product: also valid on the Mt. Myoko+ 3 Day Pass (¥33,000, seven resorts) and the Ikon Pass.

Season

Mid-December to 11 May, unusually long by Japanese-resort standards.

Getting there

Joetsu-Myoko Shinkansen station, then around 25 minutes by the resort's own shuttle. About four hours' drive from Tokyo.

Lodging

The resort's own two hotel buildings only, around 245 rooms combined: The Arai (family-oriented) and The Lodge/Club/Nest (upscale).

Terrain

Five lifts, roughly 14 courses, eight avalanche-controlled freeride zones covering an estimated 80% of the resort.