Hi, There are ski school there to provide both English and Chinese lesson. This year in Feb, I think I saw a Hong Kong lady instructor giving ski lesson. There are also many English (non-Japanese) instructor around to give good English instruction at Hirafu mountain.

All four resorts have beginning areas. Grand Hirafu has the best ski school if your learning. Hanazono has the most flat terrain good for skiing but not snowboarding.

By the way, I would not restrict your skiing to Grand Hirafu. Hanazono and Annupuri are also very nice. If you are an advanced skier, you may want to ski a bigger area. The 4 ski resorts are interlinked. You can ski across the 4 resorts from the top. Nice onsens near Annupuri.

Unsure of resort open season but it is a family friendly resort with beginner, intermediate and advanced options. Contact Niseko guiding and photography to capture your time there in high definition quality snaps on or off piste. Enjoy

The snow is incredible this year. Usually mid to 3rd week of April is still good but must check for end April this yr. Spring skiing is fun, not too cold and lots of sun light. If you are adventurous, you should consider booking a one day tour with a local guide and photographer to climb up Mount Yotei (6 hours hike up the mountain) and snowboard down. The guide can bring you to outdoor open air natural hot spring.

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I rented all of my ski / snowboarding equipment in Niseko...there are several shops you can go to...no need to reserve or book online...I rented from a place call Rhythm. They had nice quality equipment.

I imagine an opening date is set to allow for hiring staff etc but no resort can guarantee when the snow will actually fall in sufficient quantities. If there’s not enough snow they will use the machines to create artificial snow, BUT the weather still needs to be cold enough (below 0) for machines to produce snow. Good luck. I hope you get some good skiing weather! :-)

As my last visit ,It was snowing since the mid of November.

Hi. Went to Niseko last January. Stayed in the Vale. Our transfer costs were part of the ski course + accomodation package. I've had a look on the Niseko japan website and it mentions a daily bus service from Chitose airport to Niseko for 2,000 Y one way (£17) and 4,000Y return (£27) per person. I think your tour op must have a hotel deal with their parent company in Japan. See what they say if you mention the daily bus service available on the Niseko Japan website.