The lift tickets worked out to be about $40 a day at the two places I tried. The tickets themselves were chip cards you swipe to get on the lifts.

I assume you mean western Canada (Whistler, Lake Louise ,…etc…). To do a fair comparison, I think you would have to ski in Japan during the winter months and not in the spring. I didn’t go to Japan just to ski but I happened to be in Japan when skiing was still available.

The mountains themselves don’t offer any more vertical than you would get at most places in western North America (Whistler, Vail, ..etc…), maybe a bit less actually, but would be on par in terms of skiable acres. The attraction for Japan is the quantity and consistency of the snow (greater frequency of powder days). It seems a lot of Aussies and Kiwis ski Japan.

The lifts are pretty modern but there a few antiquated ones as well. But you find the same thing at North American resorts. In general, the off-piste possibilities are not as good (if that’s what you’re looking for). The skiing on the northern island of Hokkaido around Sapporo is supposed to be pretty good, especially the tree skiing.

Give Japan a try.