The snow in Nozawa is currently looking very second hand. The entire mountain is tracked and the pockets of untracked that remain are fairly crunchy to ski through. However, after a couple of bluebird days clouds are beginning to roll into Nozawa from the west. Around midnight tonight we are expecting the snow to start falling here although we really want this westerly wind to turn northwest to increase the chances of a significant fall of snow. The snow should be heaviest through the night, then reducing in intensity but continuing to fall throughout Friday.
After a clear spell of weather with light winds on Saturday the weather should roll in again from across the Japan sea. We are expecting another fall Saturday night and continued light snow through Sunday.
Farther out we may get another fall next Tuesday the 10th and then long range models show a consistent run of snowy weather from the 14th until the 18th. That would be a nice gift for Valentines day.