Tomamu vs Rusutsu

I had picked self-contained ski resorts for the convenience of having the ski slopes at the door step. I did not wish to deal with logistics of hauling bags all over with a toddler in tow. During this trip, I tried the Hoshino Tomamu Resort from 21-23 Dec and the Rusutsu Resort from 24-26 Dec. This was how I thought they measured up.

Price (not very indicative as prices spiked nearer to Christmas)
T: 23,000yen a night for 2 adults
R: 48,000yen a night for 2 adults

Room & Amenities
T: It looked refurbished, new and offered unparalleled views from the tower blocks. I loved how all 8 rooms per tower block were ‘corner’ units and were literally guaranteed beautiful views of the resort.
R: We stayed at the North Wing. The room looked nice but the toilet looked dated. The hair dryer was really old and weak. It took forever to dry my hair. It was great to have the toilet being a standalone cubicle.

Distance to ski slopes
T: The ski base was literally at door steps. The chair lifts for green slopes were very near to the hotel lobby. We could wear the ski boots down, made use of the free locker (key) and access the slopes easily. We could also park our skis at the ski base which lightened the carrying load. The staff gave us assurance that it was fine to leave the skis & ski poles out in the open.
R: While the snow was at the doorstep, it was a longer walk compared to T. The North-South wings were shorter buildings and the locker rooms were also 10-20m further away. The nearest chair lift was also about 30-50m away. For a typical adult, it probably didn’t mean any thing. However, when you have a terrible threes toddler, it was pretty tiring to conquer each metre.

Ski School for adults & kids
T: Most of the instructors were Japanese or Chinese-speaking. It was very hard to book an English instructor and they were rather rigid to insist that all guests use an online system for booking though I had enquired over email. However, I did get 2 lessons. The first day was with an English/Chinese speaking instructor. I thought she was a taiwanese. She was very sweet and patient. The second day was with a Japanese instructor. Despite the language barrier, it was a demo-and-teach session. The Nipo ski school for kids was impossibly hard to book and it was in Japanese. However, the lessons looked good. They had a big cushion block to guide the kids to make snow plough.
R: It was equally as hard to book instructors at R. However, being the more commercialized resorts of the 2, they opened up special evening slots and night slots with English speaking instructors who were mostly Caucasians. The Crayon ShinChan ski school for kids were easier to book but the lessons were conducted in a very kiddish manner – 1 hour on indoor slopes and 1 hour on outdoor. I did not feel that the instructors were as good with kids compared to what I observed in Tomamu. The indoor session was too long and draggy.

Equipment rental
T: The staff were friendly and helpful. The equipment were well used, as per any rental stores.
R: The rental was marginally more expensive here, depending on number of days or hours booked. However, the equipment were near spanking new. I had Salomon boots! It was so nice!

Ski slopes & passes
T: Being the beginner we were, we only tried the green runs. I liked how empty the slopes generally were. We bought the points-system ticket and had to punch hole every time. However, it was cheaper.
R: It offered steeper beginner slopes but was manageable. The ski passes were more expensive but they used a more advanced electronic system.

Anyway, the skiing conditions were very different at both resorts – clear, sunny day vs heavy snowing. For noobs like us, both were fun. Both resorts offered many options which we were unable to exhaust due to ability levels. Hahaha..

That being said, Rusutsu offered more challenging slopes for the experienced skiers and snowboarders.

Food
T: Most of the restaurants were proper Japanese restaurants and the pricing was reasonable. The food was also really authentic.
R: A number of restaurants offered fast food, italian, french, chinese and buffet. The buffet with king crabs was very value for money at 4800yen per adult. Children below 6 only had to pay 1500yen.

Entertainment besides skiing
T: There was an ice village which was really awesome, Mina Mina beach which was a huge indoor swimming pool with waves and they had really festive arrangements such as reindeer etc.
R: There was a carousel offering free rides, a singing tree (odd), arcade, a horribly small indoor pool and it felt rather Genting-like to be honest.

Snow play area
T: There were plenty of vast, open space with free sleds and snow toys provided by the resort FOC for guests’ use.
R: There was limited space to play sledding (which had to be rented at 500yen per sled) but you could opt to pay 1200yen to enter Crayon ShinChan Kids’ Park to play with their snow toys. However, the snow play area was small in comparison to Tomamu. However, if you stayed at Westin Rusutsu, there was more open space to play with snow.

Outdoor activities centre
T: There was snow rafting, banana boat, snow mobile and more. It was easy to book the activities. We tried the snow rafting. While it was fun, the view of flat plains grew boring.
R: There was also snow rafting, snow mobile and husky dog sledding too. However, it was very packed and hard to book. We managed to book the snow mobile and the route we took was very scenic.

Service
T: The service was impeccable and the staff was very helpful. We missed a shuttle bus in the morning for breakfast at Forest Restaurant. The floor manager instantly told us that he could get a car and drive us over. Wow… There was also free rental of security locker and free use of ski locker after check out. They readily passed us the key without delay. I supposed they pretty much recognised us after 3 days.
R: The service was good and professional but lacked the warmth and sincerity we experienced at Tomamu. We also had free use of ski locker after checking out but we had to get the ‘free’ tokens from the front desk staff which was a tad troublesome.

Getting around the resort
T: There were regular shuttle buses 7 & 8 which operated at rather high frequency. If we did not want to wait, we could always walk the sheltered tunnels. It was easy to get around and it covered a number of stops.
R: There was only a monorail to operate between North South wing & Westin Rusutsu. Though the frequency was supposed to be once per 15min, it was rather slow and had limited capacity. I felt like we had to wait longer than 15min and missing the monorail due to overwhelming capacity did not feel too good either.