Galleria Tower Hotel, Tomamu

Tomamu, 1980s excess

Strange place, skyscrapers standing alone in a ski field. Shuttle buses transferring between accommodation / ice village / pool. Huge renovated room with spectacular views. Unable to book restaurants, put your name on a list and wait. Ice village, spa house, wave pool all worth a couple of visits.
Lift system a little difficult to get your head around numbers and opening times. Quite a bit of flat to negotiate (walking at times, sorry boarders). Top of mountain lots of fun off trail. Appeared to be mainly Asian (non Japanese) guests. Resort needs some love and attention.
 

Tomamu: Off-Piste Skiing Galore

Tomamu used to be a secret powderhound jewel, but unfortunately its notoriety is slowly increasing, especially since it was featured on the 2008 Warren Miller movie. Tomamu is a good ski resort for all ability levels, but for advanced riders the tree skiing (which isn’t banned) is really enjoyable. There are also great powder stashes in the backcountry if you can appear invisible and are good at doing the limbo under ropes. The terrain isn’t particularly steep but it has the infamous dry Hokkaido powder, and no crowds - the perfect powderhound combination. And if that’s not enough to satisfy your craving for powder, they also have cat skiing and heli-skiing.    Accommodation is at the base area in towering hotel monstrosities. The 50 metre wave pool that comes complete with Hawaiian music adds to the classical Japanese kitsch. Even though it’s very resorty, the accommodation is of a high standard, and the towers are conveniently ski-in ski-out.

The restaurants at Tomamu are fabulous, but if you want après or nightlife action, this is not the place for you. It’s incredibly family oriented and the best drinks can be bought from one of the hundreds of vending machines!

See the powderhounds review for more information.