Active Life buys a hotel in Shiga Kogen, and Madarao fans should take note

One of Shiga Kogen’s ski-in ski-out onsen hotels has a new owner. The Iwasuge Hotel has been bought by Active Life, an Australian-owned, Japan-based mountain hospitality group, and is now operating as Iwasuge Shiga Kogen by Active Life.

If the name rings a bell, you’ve probably skied Madarao, where Active Life runs two hotels and a ski school. The group also owns Palcall Tsumagoi, a ski resort over the border in Gunma. Add Shiga Kogen and it now has a foothold in three very different ski destinations, which makes this more interesting than a simple change of ownership.

Iwasuge Shiga Kogen by Active Life. Image supplied

The hotel

The big selling point is location. Iwasuge is a ski-in ski-out hotel, with the Higashitateyama and Hoppo-Bunadaira ski areas right on its doorstep. The hotel offers both Japanese-style and Western-style rooms, with the traditional Japanese rooms sleeping up to four people on futons laid over tatami, with a private toilet. All guests share the hotel’s onsen baths, which are just the thing after a long day on the mountain.

And then there’s Shiga Kogen itself. It isn’t one resort but 18 separate ski areas spread across five zones, all sharing one lift pass, making it the biggest ski area in Japan. The terrain tops out at 2,307m on Mt Yokote, and the resort hosted the giant slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Free shuttle buses run between the areas and are included with your lift pass, so a ski-in ski-out base in the middle of it all puts a huge amount of skiing within easy reach. It’s the kind of place you could spend a week exploring and still not ski everything.

Iwasuge Shiga Kogen’s onsen. Image supplied

Shiga Kogen, meet Madarao

The most immediate change for skiers is how Iwasuge will connect with Active Life’s Madarao hotels. The group says it’s working on packages that link the two resorts, bundling accommodation and travel so you can split a trip between them.

It’s a natural pairing. Madarao is one of Japan’s snowiest small resorts, and its gladed tree runs are some of the most fun you’ll find anywhere on Honshu when it’s dumping. Shiga Kogen brings the scale and variety. Both are on the Ikon Pass, and in Shiga Kogen’s case Ikon days can be used across all 18 areas rather than counted per area.

Shiga Kogen. Image supplied

On the Madarao side, you’d be choosing between two hotels close to the lifts. Active Life Madarao is the group’s flagship, with en suite rooms, an on-site bar, cafe and restaurant, and just 250 metres to the chairlifts. Xplore by Active Life is just steps from the slopes, with its own bar and restaurant. The group’s snowsports school, Active Life Snow Club, is based in Madarao too.

Madarao

Not just a winter play

The group is also keen to make Iwasuge a year-round destination, built around mountain sports, onsen and wellness, and outdoor adventure. Shiga Kogen has plenty to work with in summer, not least Mt Iwasuge itself, one of Japan’s 200 famous mountains, with ridgeline trails and big views across the plateau.

What’s next?

The hotel comes with a bit of history built in. It sits in Hoppo Onsen, one of Shiga Kogen’s oldest hot spring areas, where sulphur-rich water has been drawing visitors to the slopes of Higashitateyama long before the lifts arrived.

What happens next is the interesting part. Active Life has a reputation for trying things other Japanese operators don’t. At Palcall, it runs a sunrise gondola for first tracks on fresh groomers and has developed the terrain park into one of the largest in Japan. A ski-in ski-out onsen hotel in the middle of the country’s biggest ski area gives the group plenty to work with, and we’ll be watching to see what it does with it.

In the meantime, bookings are open, with a Launch Exclusive Package offering up to 30% off available on the Iwasuge Shiga Kogen website. Details of the combined Shiga Kogen and Madarao packages are still to come, and we’ll share them as soon as they’re announced.