I have been here a few weeks and things are sort of settling down (though my "working" hours are all kinda crazy since I routinely get up early to have calls or stay up early into the day US-EST). Where would be a good place to go that is near-ish to central tokyo for snowboarding? I don't have a desire for anything crazy, just some nice long runs without crazy inclines. No need to be taken to the top of a snow bowl on a snowcat or anything like that. Suggestions?
if you don't have a car the easiest place is Gala Yuzawa. It's not the worst and not the best. It's owned by the JR and you can get good package deals (shinkansen + lift ticket).
If you do have a car, google ski in katakana and go to a random mountain in gunma, nagano or nigata that is far as fuck from a train. These mountains are never crowded.
90% of the mountains are about the same and cost about the same. 15-25 trails for4千円 a day is the standard. Just keep in mind that some mountains still don't allow snowboards so always call ahead.
Excellent advice from wuchan. I would add that in that catchment area I can think of only two holdout skifields which still restrict themselves to skiers only, and they are both right next to ski fields which do, so the risk of making a journey only to be disappointed are now virtually nil in that regard.