Let’s get one thing straight: skiing in Japan is still great value. Next to a week in Whistler, Colorado or the Alps, it’s not even close. But lift tickets have crept up in quite a few places over the past couple of seasons, so new budget options are always welcome.
So when a press release lands announcing a ski lodge where a bed starts at ¥3,200 a night, it gets read twice. The lodge is BunkLodge NEKOMA, a new no-frills option from Hoshino Resorts at NEKOMA Mountain in Fukushima, opening on 12 January 2027. Here’s what it is, who it suits, and where the catches are.
NEKOMA Mountain
Prices are creeping up
Japanese travel site Tabiris tracks day-ticket prices at the country’s major resorts every year. Its count for last season put the average adult day ticket across 64 big resorts at ¥7,327, up about 8% on the year before.
That trend has carried into 2026–27 at the big names. Rusutsu’s adult day ticket has gone to ¥16,700 at the window, up from ¥16,200 and now the most expensive in Japan. A peak-season day on the Niseko United All Mountain Pass is ¥13,500, the Hakuba Valley all-mountain day pass is ¥11,100, and Furano is ¥9,000. Even Nozawa Onsen has nudged up to ¥7,800, from ¥7,500 last season.
Keep that in perspective, though. Even Niseko’s peak rate is well under a day pass at a major North American resort, and plenty of Japanese resorts still sit below ¥7,000. Japan remains one of the most competitive places to ski anywhere, so the rises are more a gentle nudge than a crisis. Still, anything that keeps the cost of a trip down is worth a look.
What BunkLodge actually offers
BunkLodge sits on the slopes of NEKOMA’s South Area, in a building that’s been closed since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. It’s genuinely good to see it back in use. Fukushima’s ski areas have had a rough decade and a half, and breathing life into old stock is a better story than pouring another foundation.
BunkLodge NEKOMA
The concept is simple: 63 rooms sleeping four or six, a drying room, a tune-up corner, and not a lot else. The Standard Plan starts from ¥3,200 per person per night, based on six sharing. Stay five nights and the Special Plan drops that to ¥2,560 a night. Bookings are open now on the Hoshino Resorts site.
BunkLodge 6-person guest room
That five-night rate works out to ¥12,800 for the whole stay. For perspective, that’s less than a single day on a Niseko peak-season pass.
The lift side of the equation helps too. NEKOMA’s online adult day ticket for 2026–27 is ¥5,900, comfortably below the national average. New 3-day and 5-day tickets bring the daily cost down further and can be used on non-consecutive days.
Put the five-night bunk plan together with a multi-day ticket and you’ve got a week at one of Japan’s biggest resorts for a fraction of what the headline resorts charge for lifts alone. NEKOMA is also on the Ikon Pass, so Ikon holders have the lift side covered already.
Other ways to stay
If bunk beds aren’t your thing, NEKOMA has a few other options worth a look.
Bandaisan Onsen Hotel is the comfortable choice, with direct slope access, Aizu cuisine and natural hot springs. It’s not a budget stay, but two details stood out: a 2pm checkout, so you can squeeze in a last morning without a mad dash, and a wax bar open 24 hours. Small things, but they show someone who skis actually designed the stay. The hotel also runs Aizu Izakaya GO, a list of local izakaya recommended by staff, which is a good excuse to get off-property for dinner.
Bandaisan Onsen Hotel
Car-stay plans let you sleep in your own car or a campervan in a dedicated overnight lot right in front of the slopes. Honestly, a Fukushima January in a van is for the committed. But you get access to the hotel’s onsen and lounge, which makes it far more civilised, and campervan rental plans are available if you don’t have your own wheels.
Staying near the North Area is another option through the local Aizu-Bandai Snow Resort Alliance. Urabandai Lake Resort offers guests ski rental and changing facilities, and Mercure Urabandai Resorts & Spa is adding an official NEKOMA rental corner this season. The best bit for budget skiers is the free Urabandai Area Ski Shuttle, which links NEKOMA and EN Resort Grandeco via local hotels. Two resorts, no car, no extra cost.
About NEKOMA Mountain
NEKOMA Mountain sits in the Aizu region of Fukushima, spread across the north and south sides of Mt. Nekomadake above Lake Inawashiro. It’s two old resorts rolled into one: the South Area was Alts Bandai and the North Area was Nekoma, and Hoshino joined them with a connecting chairlift for the 2023–24 season.
NEKOMA Mountain powder
Combined, it’s one of the biggest ski areas in Japan: 189 hectares, 33 courses covering 39 km, 13 lifts and 638 m of vertical, from a 700 m base to a 1,338 m summit. The South Area is mostly beginner and intermediate terrain, with views across the lake to Mt. Bandai. The North Area is higher and largely north-facing, so it tends to hold the lightest, driest snow. It’s long been known as a park resort, but the trees are catching up. Tree run zones opened last season and have grown to five areas for 2026–27. The mountain is scheduled to run from 28 November 2026 to 9 May 2027.
The verdict
One bunk lodge doesn’t make a movement. But Hoshino Resorts is one of Japan’s biggest operators, and it’s notable that it chose to add beds at the cheap end rather than the top.
Japan’s ski scene has spent the last few years courting high-spending international visitors, so it’s nice to see budget options coming to market too: for the uni crews, the dirtbag seasonaires, and the groups of mates who’d rather spend their yen on extra days than thread count.
More of this, please.
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