Rusutsu Ski Resort

Rusutsu is a full-service slopeside resort with a large hotel complex containing a large range of amenities and doorstep skiing.

The giant Rusutsu Resort Hotel offers more than 750 rooms and resort-scale facilities on top, including dozens of shops and restaurants. Alternatively, you have the option of staying in log cabins from Canada, made from timber first imported from Finland.

Despite its low altitude (by the standards of Europe's Alps or the Rockies), Rusutsu ski resort is famous for its remarkable natural snowfall. Hokkaido is on the same latitude as the European Alps, and regularly accumulates 1m (3.3ft) of snow on its beaches. Indeed, the only complaint has been ‘too much snow', with some visitors complaining of snow falling for weeks on end.

Downhill skiing has been ‘big’ in Japan for a century, since Austrian pioneers were imported to train local ski instructors. Winter sports boomed in the country in the 1980s, but an economic downturn 20 years ago (combined with the rise of the video-game culture), left many of the country's 600 plus ski areas in financial difficulties.

In recent years however, a new market of skiers – initially from Australia, and now the UK – has revived the fortunes of some of the best Japanese resorts. Lift ticket prices, once the most expensive in the world, are now cheaper than at most major resorts in Europe or North America, while practical problems for English speakers 20 years ago, such as all signage in Japanese, are gradually being changed.