Rentals and Lessons
Rentals
There are a few decent rental shops in town and on arrival in Hakuba we’ll take you there to help you get sorted out..
For snowboard gear The Boarding co has top of the line Burton and prior models as well as Burton cruzer models for beginners and intermediates……and they’ll even deliver and pick up from the lodge!
Check out www.theboardingco.com or call 0261-75-4095
At “500 Miles rental shop“, adjacent to Evergreen Outdoors Center, they have good quality ski and snowboard gear as well as outwear available for rent at competitive prices. Unfortunately, they don’t have a website or take advanced reservations, but once at the lodge we can help you get sorted with everything you need there.
A little further up the road is “Spicy Sports” who have similar rates and equally good stuff. Check out their website in English at http://www.spicy.co.jp/english/index.html
Like 500 Miles, they don’t take advanced reservations.
**Warning!! For those of you with big feet (over size 30 or 12 US) you may have a difficult time finding boots in Hakuba – especially snowboarders!! It may be worthwhile picking some up in Tokyo!
Buying Gear in Japan
For those looking to buy gear in Japan, there are some surprisingly good deals to be found, especially as the season progresses. In fact, by late January prices have fallen significantly and by March are approaching half-price. For those of you from the Southern-hemisphere, this means you can buy stuff that hasn’t even been released in Australia or N.Z. yet at big discounts!!
There are a few good shops here in Hakuba and if your itinerary takes you through Tokyo, a visit to Ochanomizu is a must. A short walk from Ochanomizu station (on the Sobu line) is a kilometer long street lined with nothing but ski and snowboard shops often with great deals……a skier or snowboarder’s bargain wonderland!
Lessons & Guiding Services
There are a handful of different places offering lessons and guiding services in Hakuba. For most of our guests we recommend Evergreen Outdoor Center.
They’re about a 4 minute walk from us (in the Mominoki Hotel complex) and have quality services in English and Japanese and a whole range of stuff for kids! We can help you organize your lessons once at the lodge, however, Evergreen is very popular and we strongly advise booking in advance.
Evergreen also offers an excellent Backcountry guiding service. This is a great way to get in some pristine powder and immerse yourselves in the full beauty of the mountains.
Along with the lessons and guiding, some other services of interest they offer are snowshoeing tours and backcountry/avalanche awareness courses. The Evening Snowshoe and Fondue tour is highly-recommended!
For more info about Evergreen check out http://www.evergreen-hakuba.com/, call them at (0261)72-5150 or even better walk down there and talk face to face.