Yuzawa (湯沢) in Niigata Prefecture is one of the largest and the most easily accessed ski areas from Tokyo. You can be on the slopes from Tokyo Station in under two hours. Yuzawa is known for deep powder and a long season, with some of its resorts open from mid November to late May.
There are approximately twenty resorts in and around Yuzawa, varying in size from one to over thirty lifts. While some are near the town center, others are more remote, but they are all accessible by public transportation.
A few resorts team up to offer combination lift tickets that give you access to all of the participating resorts. They are typically connected to each other so that you can ski or snowboard between them.
Yuzawa is also known for its onsen (hot springs), with baths located at the ski resorts, hotels, public bath houses and shinkansen stations. Echigo-Yuzawa Station offers, furthermore, an all-you-can-try sake shop at which you can compare almost 100 different varieties of sake from Niigata Prefecture for 500 yen.