For kids, other than the skiing, the best thing to do is take them to the Kiroro Resort Snow Park. The Kiroro Snow Park has a tubing ramp, it’s all over in about 10 seconds, but is quite good fun. There’s also a gentle hill for sledding, it’s not really steep enough to have major fun on, but younger (Like 6 and under) and people who have never seen/touched snow will probably love it. There’s a good selection of sleds, little replica snow mobiles, your typical sled, round sleds, a stand up thing and it’s, like the rest of the resort, pretty ok without being blowing your mind.

There’s a little area for toddlers and infants to build some snow castles and the like, and you can do snow rafting, which costs more, and you basically only get a few rounds.  The Kiroro Resort Snow Park does cost to get into, but it’s not much, 1,500 yen for a day, but there’s really only two things you can do for that.  As mentioned the snow rafting is extra. There’s a larger tubing park that was not open when we were there, that appears a bit more fun on the their website.

The Kiroro Resort Snow Park is located in the Kiroro, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel, down the road from the Sheraton Kiroro.  If you get the shuttle bus from the Sheraton, walk in the lobby, go up the stairs then walk outside to where the restaurant and shopping arcade is and you’ll see the signs for Nature Center, which is where you check in for the Kiroro Resort Snow Park.  When you’re done with Kiroro Resort Snow Park, take a walk to the Recreation Center about 5-10 minutes down the road from the Kiroro Resort Snow park.

Here is where we had one of the best times in recent years.  It’s Bubble Ball (see photos).  You’re supposed to be 6 yrs old or 120cm, neither of which Grobbler was, but surprisingly, and fortunately, they didn’t seem to care too much.  Thank god common sense prevails because not much harm can get done here. Basically you strap yourself in to a big bubble ball and run into each other.  It’s 1000 yen for 10 minutes, we did it about 4 times during our stay and each time Grobbler was cracking up while I attempted to knock him over.  I can image this would be even more fun with two adults!  This is a must do if you’re staying in Kiroro Resort, regardless of the hotel you’re in.

You can do a banana boat, mini snow mobile, cross country skiing, snow buggies and they even have some indoor activities for crappy days or the less adventurous.  Overall, I think 4-5 full days at Kiroro Resort is a good amount of time.  If you stay longer you’ll start to get bored although you could easily head over to Niseko or Rusutsu for some different skiing.  Kiroro Resort is, like most places in Japan, excellent for kids.  There’s also two ski schools for kids and the kids area for skiing is fantastic (you can read more about that here).

Go back to our main Kiroro Resort pages here, or ask us any questions about Kiroro Resort Snow Park or Kiroro for kids in general via Twitter.