Winter skiing options in Myoko's powder snow are almost endless. Founded in the 1930s, Myoko is one of the oldest established ski areas in the world, yet prices are reasonable by western standards. The Myoko Ski Area is made up of nine mountains: Myoko Akakura, Ikenotaira Onsen, Myoko Suginohara (which boasts the longest ski run in Japan), Seki Onsen, Kyukamura, Myoko Ski Park, APA resort Myoko Pine Valley, Madarao Kogen and Tangram Ski Circus. Great powder, great scenery and lots of hot springs to relax in afterwards.

myoko-nojiri.com

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Great DJ bar/restaurant right at the bottom of the Asagai snowboard park, part of the Naeba resort in Niigata. It's actually a short walk up the hill from Naeba itself (for those of you that have never been, an all-in ski pass for Naeba, next door Tashiro and, best of all, Kagura is a whole recommendation in itself). The space itself is pretty rough 'n' ready but on a good weekend the DJs they get in from Tokyo put most Japanese après-ski to shame. Opens late-ish December I think.

www.snodeck.net
Tel: 81 (0) 25 780 9190

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Probably the closest any Japanese music festival comes to evoking the spirit of Glastonbury. Fuji Rock has got it all: bucolic setting, diverse line-up, unpredictable weather and a truly wallet-singeing ticket price (3-day passes fall just shy of 40,000 yen a pop).

The "Fuji" bit is something of a misnomer, mind you. Japan's iconic mountain was actually visible from the site of the inaugural event in 1997 - but then, that event was destroyed halfway through by a typhoon, leading the organisers to choose an alternative location. It's now held at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture - a pretty much ideal setting, albeit one that's blighted by random, torrential downpours.

Compared to most western festivals, Fuji is an almost ludicrously civilised affair. The campsite comes complete with showers and a free hot spring bath, everyone is handed litter bags on the way into the arena so they can pick up after themselves, and - get this - the queue for the merchandise shops are about 2 hours longer than the ones for the beer tents. The latter seldom having any queue whatsoever, natch.

If you go, be sure to check out the smaller Field of Heaven and Orange Court stages, take a walk along the forest boardwalk at night (trippy visuals galore), and pay a visit to the Palace of Wonder area in the wee hours of the morning - it's where all the meeja people hang out, along with a few bona fide celebrities.

Take the bullet train (shinkansen) from Tokyo to JR Echigo Yuzawa station. A free shuttle bus service runs to the festival site from there.
If you're travelling from the Kansai area or Hokkaido, go to www.smash-uk.com/frf06/visitor_guide.html for details of some rather more esoteric transport options.

www.fujirockfestival.com

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