What's On At Iwatake This Season - MountainWatch Travel

What’s On At Iwatake This Season

By Kate McRobie Last updated March 23, 2026

Another one of Hakuba’s most popular resorts is Hakuba Iwatake. And for good reason!

Just under 10 minutes drive from Happo we definitely recommend jumping on the shuttle bus to Iwatake during your time in Hakuba.

Iwatake continues to improve their services with a heap of new upgrades for the 2018/19 season.

New Tree Run Area

One of the most popular areas at Iwatake is the back bowl on the reverse side of the mountain. Iwatake have negotiated with the National Forest Agency to borrow the entire of this back bowl for the 18/19 season. This means they will be able to continuously cut the trees in this area to open a new tree skiing area.

New Terrain

Not only are Iwatake increasing the tree skiing area for this season but they’re also increasing the variety of terrain on offer. For the 18/19 season they will upgrade the Iwatake DC Park (One of the best in the valley), a new mogul course on the Paradise Gelande Course and a bank/wave course on the Sunny Valley Course.

Snow Machines

Iwatake have also introduced more snow machines to ensure high quality snow throughout the entire season. These machines have been put in the middle of the Sunny Valley slope.

Hakuba Mountain Harbour

Hakuba Iwatake have now opened their new Hakuba Mountain Harbor. Mountain Harbor features a long-established bakery from New York “City Bakery” as well as an amazing sky deck which is the perfect place to take in the incredible scenery. Mountain Harbor is open all year round so be sure to check it out if you’re skiing or boarding at Iwatake this season.

T.Y Harbour Brewery Pop Up Bar

The T.Y Harbor Brewery Pop Up Bar will also be featuring again for the 18-19 season. Be sure to stop off here for some great craft beers up the top of Iwatake.

Other Activities

There are lots of different activities you can enjoy in Iwatake including:

DC early morning first track CAT tour
Snow buggy cruising
Snow rafting

Iwatake Old Town Cultural Festival

Iwatake will be host to the Old Town Cultural Festival, across two days and two locations this season.

Jan 23rd: Kirikubo Location: Suwa Shrine

Jan 30th: Shinden Location: Maruhachi and the street.

Introducing a Brand New Hotel and Restaurant!

A new hotel and restaurant with renovated traditional houses will open on December 22nd in Iwatake Shinden Area. The hotel is called Hatago Maruhachi and the restaurant is Shoya Maruhachi Dining which includes a live grill kitchen and a standing sake bar.

To find our more about the Hakuba Valley be sure to check out Hakuba.com for all the latest updates during the season.

Want to join us for a holiday at one of the best ski resorts in Japan? Click through to request a free quote!

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If you’re staying in Hakuba and are wanting to visit other resorts within Nagano including Myoko, Madarao, Nozawa Onsen and Shiga Kogen, come join us on our Nagano Snow Chasers tours.

Kate McRobie

Marketing and Brand Manager

Kate McRobie is a digital marketing specialist with over ten years' experience across New Zealand, Amsterdam and Japan in the sports and snow industries, including campaigns for Netflix, Under Armour, Giant Bicycles and Vans. She spent two back-to-back seasons based in Niseko, Japan, heading up marketing for HTM across some of the region's largest hotels, ski schools, rental operations and restaurants.

nicky sullivan

Lizzie was so helpful, gave us some options and advice to help us pinpoint where we wanted to go. And once we had booked provided some really helpful travel advice and answering questions we had. Easy to deal with, everything was smooth and we had a great time.

Shelly Drewitz

Calum was awesome at helping us every step of the way with our trip. We got a great deal on the accommodation and ski lift, and we will definitely come back to Mountainwatch next time based on his excellent service.

Mark K Grant

I booked my Japan ski holiday through Mountainwatch. Very professional and when we arrived in Japan all was laid out for us. The accommodation was even nicer than expected. KIrsty was very good to work with and made things very easy!!!! will book again next season.

Jess

Great experience booking through this company, our contact Anna was brilliant, and organised a fantastic ski trip for us. The travel was all clearly laid out, the accommodation was lovely, the ski field was fantastic, great range of local dining options and bars.

Brett A

Mountain Watch are great, well organised and excellent advice on locations and accommodation. Highly recommended!

darren martin

Thanks Kirsty for helping arrange our family trip to Myoko for Xmas 2025, we had an amazing time

Jan Kelly

Thanks Kirsty, once again your arrangements for us in Japan worked very well. We’ll have no hesitation about touching base with you before we make another booking….. not sure if we’ll be organised by June, but we’ll see. Have a great season yourself and keep up the good work at MountainWatch. Regards Jan and Tom

Samantha Farr

Our trip to Hakuba and Tokyo was so smooth and easy thanks to the help of Justine. Hotel was great and in a perfect location and it was very smooth having all our extras like lessons and rentals booked and sorted before we arrived. Would 100% book through Mountainwatch Travel again!

John Durham

This is the second year that Kristy has organized travel arrangements for a skiing holiday to Furano in Japan, for us. It is the second time that those arrangements have been fulfilled seamlessly. No hassles, as planned and on time. Perfect, and will use Mountainwatchj Travel again. John Durham

Simone B

We booked through Anna O’Malley for our stay in Nozawa onsen Village in Japan. Seamless service, prompt, and pricing reasonable. The Shimataya View Hotel, was a lovely stay. Room size was large, great views, and Amazing service from Staff. Momoi and Eloisa couldn’t help enough- from dinner reservations to organising luggage to Tokyo. Property is older, though clean, well maintained. 10 min walk to slopes, 5 min walk to village centre. I recommend Mountain Watch, and this property. Photos are the view from our room.

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What’s On At Iwatake This Season

Another one of Hakuba’s most popular resorts is Hakuba Iwatake. And for good reason!

New Tree Run Area

New Terrain

Snow Machines

Hakuba Mountain Harbour

T.Y Harbour Brewery Pop Up Bar

Other Activities

Iwatake Old Town Cultural Festival

Introducing a Brand New Hotel and Restaurant!

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