Daisen Masumizu Highland

While I was down in Shimane over the New Year’s break, we decided to make the most of it and also do some snowboarding.

The main ski fields near Shimane are the ones on the side of Mt Daisen, which is in the neighbouring prefecture of Tottori. Shimane and Tottori are the two least-populated prefectures in all of Japan, so you’d think there wouldn’t be many people even using these ski fields, but apparently people make the drive up from other prefectures like Hiroshima to make use of it. (Which is probably the equivalent of us Tokyoites making the long drive out to Nagano and Niigata).

The larger and more popular ski field, Daisen White Resort, was actually still closed to the lack of snow, so we went to this minor one called Daisen Masumizu Highland (大山ますみず高原). Only one of their two lifts were operating so you could only use one slope. But it was quite wide and not too crowded. The snow was super powdery so even when I stacked it, it didn’t hurt at all.

The super cool thing about this ski field though is the amazing scenery! Getting to see the peak of Mt Daisen rise up right before you is quite the sight. It being one of the Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan, of course I had already climbed it last time we visited Shimane in 2024.

The other selling point of this ski field is that you get to see the Sea of Japan from up on the slopes.

I would say the one downside is that the slope has a medium gradient, so although it was good for me (a not very good snowboarder trying to make her way out of the beginner category) I wouldn’t say it would be good for a true beginner.

It seemed to be quite popular with snowboarders though, and they even had a little ramp section if you’re good enough to do tricks.

After snowboarding, we stopped by the Kaike Onsen town for a soak. It’s right on the coast, so the onsen water tastes kind of salty.

There’s an outside rotenburo which gives you views out to the beach as well. There’s like a grey-ish film of a privacy sticker of some sort on the glass walls of the balcony, to stop anyone who might want to stand on the beach and peep with their binoculars.