Appi_Kogen_Ski_Resort_from_Sailer_Gondola_Jan_2005

The is one of the largest

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

s in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, operated by Iwate Hotel & Resort, adjacent to the

Towada-Hachimantai National Park is a national park comprising two separate areas of Aomori, Iwate, and Akita Prefectures, Japan. The Towada-Hakkōda area encompasses Lake Towada, Mount Hakkōda, and most of the Oirase River valley. The Hachimantai area includes Mount Hachim ...

. The resort is most famous for its

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partial ...

slopes, but it also has a

guest ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...

soccer field A football pitch (also known as soccer field) is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is typically made of natural t ...

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s (

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

), and other amenities. The resort is 50 minutes from

Morioka Station Morioka Station ( ja, 盛岡駅, ) is a railway station in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR East. Lines Morioka Station is a major junction station, and is served by both the Tōhoku Shinkansen and the Akita Shinkansen. I ...

on the Tohoku Shinkansen by non-stop express bus. This station is approximately (2 hr 10 min) from

Tokyo Station Tokyo Station ( ja, 東京駅, ) is a railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is ...

. By car, it is about 30-50 minute drive from the city of

Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . ...

, 15 min from Matsuo-Hachimantai IC on the

Tōhoku Expressway The is a south-north national expressway, and the longest expressway in Japan at . Its southern terminus is in Kawaguchi, Saitama in the Greater Tokyo Area, at the Tokyo Gaikan Expressway and Kawaguchi Route near Araijuku Station, and its no ...

, or 20 min from

Ashiro IC Ashiro may refer to: *Ashiro, Iwate was a town located in Iwate District, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. The villages of Arasawa and Tayama were created on April 1, 1889, within Ninohe District with the establishment of the municipality system. The ...

on the Tohoku Expwy.

History

The development of the resort was led by Hiromasa Ezoe, a Japanese

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and the founder of the advertising and human resources company

Recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

. The name of this area, Appi, is derived from the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu, is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate ...

word, meaning "a place where one can live in peace" (Kogen means heights or highlands in Japanese).　The construction began in 1970s and the ski area was opened in December, 1981, with four chair lifts. The 'Sailer' area expansion was designed by

Toni Sailer Anton Engelbert "Toni" Sailer (17 November 1935 – 24 August 2009) was an Austrian alpine ski racer, considered among the best in the sport. At age 20, he won all three gold medals in alpine skiing at the 1956 Winter Olympics. He nearly duplica ...

, an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

alpine ski racer and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. The Hotel Appi Grand opened in 1985, and the Appi Hills Shirakaba-No-Mori 3 (formerly the Appi Grand Villa 3) opened in 1991. In 1992, the ski resort attracted 1.5 million visitors in a year. The Hotel Appi Grand Annex opened in 1996. Soccer fields opened in 1998. During 2003-2016, the resort was managed by the Kamori Kanko Group. In 2014, a memorial to Hiromasa Ezoe, the founder of the resort who had died in February 2013, was erected at the resort. Since 2016, the resort has been managed by the Asia Gate Holdings Co., Ltd. In 2005 and 2016,

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

races of the

National Sports Festival of Japan The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and Octob ...

were held in Appi Kogen.

Skiing

The ski resort expands on two mountains, Mt. Maemori and Mt. Nishimori, with 21 trails, and a total trail length of for skiers and snowboarders of all levels. It is the largest ski resort operated by a single company in Japan, with an average run of 2.1 km (1.3 mi), Japan’s longest average. The maximum slope is 34° on the Second Sailer Run A; the longest run is and the vertical drop is . Lift service includes 2 gondolas and 14 chair lifts including 3 high-speed quad lifts and 11 double chairlifts. The resort is also family-friendly, with a kid's ski area, child care service, snow play areas, and a petting zoo. The winter ski season in Appi stretches over 5 months from December to early May. Nighttime skiing is available most nights; skiing and snowboarding lesson programs are available. CNN International ranked Appi Kogen the best ski resort in Asia.

Lifts

Golf courses

The Appi Kogen Golf Club has 4 courses, namely Hachimantai Course, Towada Course, Ryugamori Course, and Iwatesan Course, 36 holes in total, opened in 1978.

LPGA of Japan Tour The LPGA of Japan Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers' Association. It is the second richest women's golf tour in the world. The U.S.-based LPGA Tour is the most important women's tour, but ...

tournaments were held in 1984-88 and 1991-92. The

Japan LPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup , is the one of the longest running tournament in the history of the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association, surpassed only by Japan Women's Open. It is one of four majors on the LPGA of Japan Tour The LPGA of Japan Tour is a professional go ...

on the LPGA of Japan Tour was held in the Appi Kogen Golf Club in September 2017.

Other attractions

The ski resort is home to many concerts. A-Nation (2002),

Dreams Come True (band) is a Japanese pop band formed in 1988, comprising Miwa Yoshida (lead vocals) and Masato Nakamura (bass). Founding member Takahiro Nishikawa (keyboards) left in 2003 to pursue a solo career. Dreams Come True has sold more than 50 million recor ...

(2003),

Glay Glay (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese rock band, formed in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also arranged songs using elements from a wide variety of genres, includ ...

(1998),

Kaela Kimura is a Japanese pop rock singer, lyricist, fashion model and television presenter. Career Born in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan to a Japanese mother and British father, Kimura started working as a model in 2002 for the Japanese magazine '' Seventeen''. ...

(2005),

Kome Kome Club is a Japanese pop rock band formed in 1982 which achieved commercial success by blending soul and funk musical styles. They also use the style of '' rakugo''. History 1982–1997: Commercial success Kome Kome Club was founded in 1982 by vocalist ...

(1992),

L'Arc-en-Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel ( French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitarist ...

(1999),

Masayoshi Yamazaki is a Japanese singer-songwriter who plays guitar-driven blues, rock, and pop music, though he has also recorded piano ballads. Though he primarily plays the guitar, he has played the drums, piano, percussion, saxophone, and glockenspiel on so ...

(2000),

Monkey Majik Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

(2008),

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

(2001),

Mr. Children , commonly referred to by their contracted nickname , are a Japanese pop rock band formed in 1989. Consisting of Kazutoshi Sakurai, Kenichi Tahara, Keisuke Nakagawa, and Hideya Suzuki, they made their major label debut in 1992. They are one of t ...

(1995),

Sharam Q was a Japanese rock band composed of lead singer , on guitar, on drums and on keyboards. Biography They debuted with in 1992. They were not an instant hit initially, but their fourth single broke the top 50 of the Oricon charts. Even ...

(1996),

SMAP SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-pi ...

(2001), and

Tube (band) is a Japanese pop rock band formed in 1985.Mark Schilling ''The Encyclopedia of Japanese pop culture'' 1997 0834803801 p.230 "In the latter half of the 1980s rock bands like Rebecca, Checkers, Hound Dog, Tube, Anzen Chitai, Bakufu Slump, and Kom ...

(1994) held concerts in the resort.

Hotels

There are 8 hotels, including the Hotel Appi Grand, the Hotel Appi Grand Tower, the Appi Hills Shirakaba-No-Mori 1-3 (formerly the Appi Grand Villa 1-3), and the Appi Kogen Onsen Hotel 1-3 (formerly the Appi Grand Annex 1-3). There are also B&Bs. The tall Hotel Appi Grand Tower, opened in 1988, is the symbol of the resort.

Notable people

* Reiichi Mikata (born 1967),

nordic combined Nordic combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skiing and ski jumping. The Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics has been held since the first ever 1924 Winter Olympics, Winter Olympic ...

skier and Olympic gold medalist; born in Hachimantai city and worked for the Appi Kogen Ski Resort *

(1935–2009), alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist; designed the Sailer Area

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.002, 140.970, type:landmark, display=title Ski areas and resorts in Japan Sports venues in Iwate Prefecture Tourist attractions in Iwate Prefecture Gondola lifts in Japan Hachimantai, Iwate Sports venues completed in 1981 1981 establishments in Japan