Hodaigi Ski Resort
Overview
Hodaigi Ski Resort sits above Minakami in Gunma Prefecture, a 552.9-meter vertical drop from an 1,383.6-meter summit down to 830.7 meters at the base, spread across 18 runs and just under 12 kilometers of piste. What sets it apart from many similarly sized Japanese ski areas is its Indy Pass affiliation: Hodaigi carries both the Indy Base Pass and the Indy+ Pass, giving holders two lift tickets per season with the Indy+ tier waiving blackout dates entirely — a rare bit of international pass access for a resort this size in Gunma.
The resort has clearly built around families. A Snow Fairy Nursery Room offers floor-heated childcare so parents can ski while younger kids are looked after, and a fenced Kids’ Land handles sledding and snow play separately from the main runs. A dedicated beginner’s guide section on the website, a free shuttle bus, and both free and paid lounge areas round out a base area clearly designed for visitors who aren’t confident skiers yet. That doesn’t mean the mountain is soft everywhere — Hodaigi promotes a tree-run zone specifically for its snow quality, ungroomed terrain threaded between trees that draws a different crowd than the nursery slopes, and 3.15 kilometers of its runs are rated advanced against 4.36 km easy and 4.47 km intermediate, a genuinely even three-way split.
Hodaigi also runs an English-language site at en.hodaigi.jp with bilingual navigation throughout, plus a large campground and glamping operation (Earthboat) nearby for green-season visitors, suggesting a resort trying to hold onto business year-round rather than just through the snow months. The seven-lift network mixes six chairlifts with one magic carpet, keeping the beginner terrain served by low-speed, low-intimidation lift access while the chairlifts carry skiers to the steeper upper mountain.
Access sits firmly in the Kanto/Koshinetsu ski corridor: Niigata Airport is the nearest at roughly 125 kilometers, with Shinshu-Matsumoto and Fukushima airports both close behind at around 127 kilometers. Maebashi, Gunma’s capital, is the nearest city of real size at about 48 kilometers, making Hodaigi realistically reachable as a day trip from the Kanto region by car, even without a nearby airport to fly into directly.
Hodaigi’s 552.9-meter vertical drop is close in scale to nearby Kawaba’s 555.1 meters, and both resorts sit within the same Minakami-area stretch of Gunma Prefecture, but Hodaigi’s Indy Pass affiliation gives it a specific advantage for pass-holding travelers that its geographic neighbor currently lacks. That kind of side-by-side comparison matters for visitors planning a multi-resort Gunma trip: two mountains a short drive apart can have meaningfully different pass economics even when their statistics on paper — vertical drop, run count, lift count — look nearly identical. Hodaigi’s seven lifts and 18 runs also give it slightly more terrain variety per lift than some of its immediate neighbors, spreading skier traffic across a broader set of named courses rather than concentrating it on just a few marquee runs.
Key stats
Official website — Last checked 2026-09-13
Lifts by type
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| chair lift | 6 |
| magic carpet | 1 |
Runs by difficulty
| Difficulty | Distance |
|---|---|
| easy | 4.36 km |
| advanced | 3.15 km |
| intermediate | 4.47 km |
Maps
View official Hodaigi Ski Resort trail map (page) →
Run & lift overview
Hodaigi Ski Resort: 18 runs, 7 lifts. A schematic built from OpenStreetMap/OpenSkiMap data — this is not Hodaigi Ski Resort's official trail map. © OpenStreetMap contributors, OpenSkiMap (ODbL).
Typical conditions by month
Monthly conditions data for Hodaigi Ski Resort is not yet available.
Lift tickets & passes
- Indy Base Pass — 2 All-Day or All-Night tickets per resort; blackout dates apply (exact 26/27 holiday blackout dates not yet finalized as of verified_date)
- Indy+ Pass — 2 All-Day or All-Night tickets per resort, no blackout dates
Getting there
Nearest airports
- Niigata Airport (KIJ) — 124.7 km straight-line
- Shinshu-Matsumoto Airport (MMJ) — 127.3 km straight-line
- Fukushima Airport (FKS) — 127.6 km straight-line
Nearest cities
- Maebashi, Gunma — 48.2 km straight-line
- Kiryū, Gunma — 53.2 km straight-line
- Takasaki, Gunma — 55.9 km straight-line
Also covered by
Where to stay
A dedicated lodging guide for Hodaigi Ski Resort is not yet available.
Nearby resorts
- Minakami Kogen Ski Resort — 3 km straight-line, 393.1 m vertical
- Tambara Ski Park — 5 km straight-line, 312.4 m vertical
- Kawaba Ski Resort — 7 km straight-line, 555.1 m vertical
- Okutone — 7 km straight-line, 399.6 m vertical
- Oguna Hotaka Ski Area — 9 km straight-line, 560.2 m vertical
FAQ
- How big is Hodaigi Ski Resort?
- It has 18 runs over 11.98 km, a vertical drop of 552.9 m between an 830.7 m base and a 1,383.6 m summit, served by 7 lifts including a magic carpet, giving it a reasonably varied layout for its size.
- Is Hodaigi good for families with young children?
- Yes — it runs a Snow Fairy Nursery Room with floor heating for childcare and a fenced Kids' Land for sledding and snow play, on top of a beginner-terrain guide for new skiers and a free shuttle bus for guests without a car.
- Does Hodaigi have an English-language website?
- Yes, at en.hodaigi.jp, with bilingual navigation on the main Japanese site — unusual for a resort of this size in Gunma and a sign it fields a meaningful share of international visitors.
- Which multi-resort passes cover Hodaigi?
- Hodaigi is on both the Indy Base Pass and the Indy+ Pass, each giving two all-day or all-night tickets per season; the Indy+ version has no blackout dates, while the Base Pass has some holiday restrictions.
- Is Hodaigi good for advanced skiers?
- It has a real tree-run area — ungroomed terrain between trees that the resort promotes for its snow quality — plus 3.15 km of advanced-rated piste out of 11.98 km total, roughly matching its 4.36 km of easy terrain.
- What's the nearest airport to Hodaigi Ski Resort?
- Niigata Airport, about 125 km away, is the closest, followed by Shinshu-Matsumoto Airport and Fukushima Airport, both around 127 km out, so none of the three options offer a dramatically shorter transfer.
- What's the closest city to Hodaigi?
- Maebashi, roughly 48 km away, is the nearest of any size, with Takasaki about 56 km out and Kiryū close behind at 53 km.
- Does Hodaigi operate any activities outside winter?
- Yes — the resort runs a large family campground and an Earthboat glamping facility nearby during the green season, giving the property a second business beyond the ski months.
Data sources
Last verified: 2026-09-15
Base facts from OpenSkiMap (ODbL), OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata (CC0), OurAirports (public domain) and GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). See /data-sources/.