Myoko City: the Shinkansen base for Lotte Arai and Madarao

Myoko City is not the town most people picture when they hear "Myoko". That's Akakura, the small onsen settlement that sits right at the lifts of the original Myoko Kogen resorts, and its own guide covers those in depth. Myoko City is the wider municipality around it: further from those lifts, but home to the only Shinkansen station in the area, the five-star reboot at Lotte Arai, and easy reach of a broader resort set than Akakura's guide needs to cover: Madarao and Tangram on their joint pass, and the smaller, snowier Charmant Hiuchi and Cupid Valley.

The trade-off: better trains, further from the lifts

Myoko City's own pitch is straightforward, but it's worth being precise about it, because "closer to everything" isn't quite true. From the Joetsu-Myoko Shinkansen station, it's roughly 25 minutes' drive to Lotte Arai, about the same again to the Myoko Kogen lifts around Akakura, 30 to 45 minutes to Madarao and Tangram depending on the route, and around 34 minutes to Nozawa Onsen. Myoko City isn't dramatically closer to the Myoko Kogen lifts than it is to Lotte Arai: if anything it's slightly closer to Lotte Arai. What it actually buys you is the only Shinkansen platform in the area: direct from Tokyo in under two hours, with no bus transfer needed. Akakura, by contrast, sits right at the Myoko Kogen lift bases but needs a bus or taxi from the station to reach at all.

Pick Myoko City for the easier journey in and a wider spread of resorts within reach; pick Akakura, covered in its own guide, if you'd rather walk to the lift and don't mind the longer trip from Tokyo.

Lotte Arai: the standout

Lotte Arai is the reason this area gets written up at all. It opened in 1993 as the ultra-luxury Arai Mountain Resort & Spa, backed by Sony founder's son Hideo (Akio) Morita, then closed in 2006 and sat derelict for roughly a decade. South Korea's Lotte group bought the site (gondola, chairlifts, hotel buildings and all) and reopened it for the 2017/18 season as Lotte Arai Resort. What's there now is genuinely one of Japan's few purpose-built luxury ski hotels, closer in ambition to a Niseko Park Hyatt than a typical Japanese ski lodge: five-star ski-in/ski-out rooms, multiple restaurants, an onsen and spa, two indoor pools, and an international snow school.

The terrain backs it up. There are 14 official runs and 951 metres of vertical (base at 329m, top lift at 1,280m), with 16km of marked piste split roughly 25 per cent beginner, 45 per cent intermediate and 35 per cent advanced, plus eight avalanche-controlled freeride zones covering around 80 per cent of the resort. Average annual snowfall is cited at 15 metres, in line with the wider Myoko snowbelt. The exact lift count is the one figure worth checking before you book: sources give either five or six lifts including the gondola, so confirm against a current trail map. Lotte Arai sits about 25 minutes' drive from the Shinkansen station, which runs its own shuttle bus from the West Exit.

Getting there, and the Arai name

The Joetsu-Myoko Shinkansen station opened in 2015 with the Hokuriku Shinkansen's extension to Kanazawa, and it's the one genuine rail gateway to this whole area: an interchange between JR's Shinkansen services and the Echigo Tokimeki Railway's local line. Not every Shinkansen service stops here, so check the timetable before booking, but the journey from Tokyo runs to about 1 hour 50 minutes when it does: no bus change required, which isn't something Akakura or most of the Myoko Kogen resorts can offer. Driving instead takes around four hours, via the Kan-etsu and Joshin-etsu expressways. Lotte Arai runs its own shuttle bus from the station's West Exit, bookable through the hotel; local buses and taxis to the Myoko Kogen resorts and elsewhere leave from the East Exit.

The name is worth untangling, too. Myoko City was formed in 2005, when the town of Myoko-kogen and the village of Myoko merged into the existing city of Arai, which took the Myoko name at the same moment. "Arai" survives today only as a district name: it's what the station area, Lotte Arai resort and an older, separate local station are all named after, not a town in its own right any more. The city itself is modest: a little over 31,000 people at the last confirmed count. Note also that the Shinkansen station sits just over the municipal border in Joetsu City, not Myoko City itself, though it functions as the shared gateway for the whole area.

Madarao Kogen and Tangram: one pass, two hills

Madarao sits on the Nagano/Niigata border, technically split between the two, which is also why Iiyama's own guide covers its terrain properly: a bowl that piles up snow, around 60 per cent of its 31 runs left ungroomed, and some of the best legally marked tree skiing in Nagano. What matters for a Myoko City base is the pass: Madarao's day tickets are sold as a "Mountain Pass", also valid next door at Tangram, and for 2025/26 that covers the two resorts' 51 combined courses. A separate Area Pass covers Madarao alone, and kids 12 and under ski free all season. Tangram itself is the smaller, more family-pitched of the pair: no deep dive needed here, but it's a genuine extension of a Madarao day rather than a separate trip.

Charmant Hiuchi and Cupid Valley: the local picks

Charmant Hiuchi sits further out, on the Itoigawa side of the Myoko-Hiuchi-Yakeyama volcanic massif: the same mountain group visible from Myoko Kogen, just facing the Sea of Japan from the other side. That aspect means serious snowfall, with peak-season depths cited past 5 metres, and the resort markets itself on a "completely ungroomed" policy: roughly two-thirds of the terrain is left as natural, uncompacted snow. Its exact drive time from the Myoko City hub is disputed between sources, so treat it as further out rather than a quick hop, and check current directions before counting on it as a day trip.

Cupid Valley, locally nicknamed "Yukidaruma Kogen" (Snowman Highland), sits in the Yasuzuka area of Joetsu City, roughly halfway to Tokamachi. It's small (five lifts, nine pistes) but holds a genuinely respectable 550 metres of vertical for its size, suits intermediates best, and picks up over 10 metres of snow a year on average, with views over rice-field terraces to the Sea of Japan on clear days. Don't expect much beyond the skiing itself; this is a small local resort, not a resort town.

The Myoko Kogen cluster

The four original Myoko Kogen resorts (Akakura Onsen, Ikenotaira, Seki Onsen and Suginohara) sit closer to Akakura than to Myoko City, and Akakura's own guide goes into them in depth. From a Myoko City base they're a drive rather than a walk, roughly the same distance as Lotte Arai.

Who this doesn't suit

If walking to a lift matters more than the journey in, Akakura's own guide will suit you better: it sits right at the Myoko Kogen lift bases, at the cost of a longer trip from Tokyo. And if Lotte Arai's five-star pricing isn't the point of your trip, Myoko City's other resorts are modest rather than showpiece: useful additions to a wider itinerary, not a reason to fly out on their own.

Need to know

Getting there

Hokuriku Shinkansen to Joetsu-Myoko Station (about 1h50 from Tokyo, not every train stops), or around four hours' drive via the Kan-etsu and Joshin-etsu expressways.

Getting around

Lotte Arai's own shuttle from the station's West Exit; local buses and taxis from the East Exit. A hire car opens up Madarao, Charmant Hiuchi and Cupid Valley properly.

In range

Lotte Arai (~25 min), the Myoko Kogen cluster around Akakura (~25 min), Madarao and Tangram (30–45 min), Nozawa Onsen (~34 min), Charmant Hiuchi and Cupid Valley further out.

Lift passes

Bought per resort. Madarao and Tangram share a joint "Mountain Pass" covering 51 combined courses (2025/26).

Where to stay

Myoko City/Arai for the Shinkansen link and Lotte Arai's five-star base; Akakura's own guide covers staying right at the Myoko Kogen lifts instead.

Best for

Travellers who want the simplest route in from Tokyo, and are happy to drive or bus onward to the lifts in exchange for reach across a wider resort set.