HOTEL
- Stayed at Westin Rusutsu. Our room was a huge 2-floor suite with kitchen and 4 beds. I booked the cheapest category room and have no SPG status, so it's safe to say this is standard at this hotel. First time ever staying in a 2-floor suite. Must be very cost-inefficient to the hotel with room design that must be housekeeping nightmare. Yet very clean and well-kept.
- Ski-in/out? Sort of. To get to East/Isola side, you can push and skate on your skis to the Tower Pair Lift. From the hotel, it'd take ~2 minutes. My wife and kids found it easier to just walk and carry the skis, and it'd take them 4-5 minutes. Bit of a pain. To get to West side, you'd take the monorail which is slow and can take up to ~15min to arrive.
- Front desk much more professional and efficient than Kiroro SPG hotel.
- If you get dinner-inclusive plan, you can apply your dinner coupon towards any restaurant within the Rusutsu complex, including the Rusutsu Resort side which you get to by monorail. We had dinner buffet at Westin's Atrium one night, at Octoberfest on the other side the other night. Octoberfest had better selection of buffet, but Atrium overall had much better vibe and is the one we preferred.
- Breakfast buffet is also awesome. Opens at 7am (which I think is too late), and it's packed solid by 7.30am.
- I knew this, but the public bath here is not real onsen here anymore. Having said that, it is a fairly large area with large capacity and especially the outdoor rotenburo is really nice. However, this was one of the most crowded hotel public baths I've been to. No idea why it was so crowded. I went at like 10pm. Due to way too many people, I couldn't enjoy it.
- Logistics of skiing before check-in and after check-out is made relatively easy by the availability of many luggage carts and very good luggage/cloak service (much better than Kiroro Tribute's). However, unlike Kiroro Tribute, Westin only provides lockers for hotel guests (ie, no lockers to use before check-in or after check-out).

SKIING - GENERAL
- I should note that we only did intermediate and diamond runs, strictly on-piste.
- We went on weekdays in Feb. Most we ever waited in lift queue was for a few minutes for Isola 4 Quad. Otherwise, pretty much zero wait.
- If you get as lucky as we did weather-wise, the view is just out of this world. I've gone skiing elsewhere in Jpn (although not Niseko), Whistler, Mammoth, Utah... the view does not get better than Rusutsu.
- We went when there had been minimal fresh snowfall and the temp was generally around freezing point. First day (coldest day) had decent powdery condition on-piste, although nothing like the deep powder at Kiroro in Dec. By third day (warmest day), the snow was pretty packed although still not horrible like Whistler.
- Ungroomed runs here have some serious moguls. I didn't try crazy runs like Super East, but Across B, Sky Course and Rusutsu No.1 had some intense moguls that really make you sweat.
- Isola Gondola was closed (and so was the cafeteria at the bottom of Isola Gondola). This had minimal impact as far as getting around the mountain, since Isola 2 Quad was a very good substitute. However, I think this contributed to Steamboat cafeteria being insanely crowded.
- Majority foreigners here. More N.Americans than Aussies actually, which was a surprise. At Kiroro, most foreigners were Asians. Here, foreigners were majority westerners. Most Westerners are well-behaved at hotels and cafeterias, but I have to say they tend to be aggressive on the slopes and at lift stations. At Whistler, I'm sort of used to it. But in Jpn, these behaviors sort of stand out. I was just about to get on a quad lift alone (no queue) when a group of 3 Americans came up out of nowhere at the last second to hop on the lift with me. Why? They proceeded to yak away in English about this and that, talking over me as I sat in the middle. I know they thought I was a Jpnese or Chinese who didn't speak English. They were saying how it's a problem that too many people don't speak English there.
- Only went to Steamboat cafeteria, but it was insanely crowded from 11a-1p. You could never score a table to yourself. Again, this may have been because Isola base station cafeteria was closed. Also it did not help that a large group of Japanese high school kids was there during our week.
- Ski area food was actually high-quality (or so said my family... I did not partake), better than other places we've been to. Ramen 1000y, omurice ~1200y, chicken karaage 450y... these are not bad prices. Plenty of vending machines, too.
- Although lift infrastructure was very good, I couldn't understand why they laid the lifts the way they did. Location of East Gondola 1 station on West Mtn side makes no sense. It drops you off at the bottom of a short but fairly steep hill and you have to walk up it in ski boots after you get off the gondola. This hill is steep enough that I almost slid down while trying to go up it and saw other people struggle also. Once you get past that, you can go left to head towards West Gondola (additional short walk) or walk a really long ways towards the right to get to West 2 Quad. Why didn't they have the East Gondola 1 go a bit further up the mountain so that one could then ski down to either West Gondola or West 2 Quad from there? Why doesn't West Tiger Lift start 20 meters lower, so that folks coming off Dynamic course don't have to walk up hill to get to it. Also, why does Tower Pair Lift take you to the middle of nowhere? Why doesn't it go right to Westin instead?
- Order of difficulty amongst Intermediate runs I skiied: Steamboat A > East Tinyu > Isola C > Steamboat B > Isola D > East Vivaldi > Isola Gran > Ridge B > Heavenly View
- Order of difficulty amongst Diamond runs I skiied: Across B >> Rusutsu No.1 > Sky Course > Isola B > Dynamic = Elite > Giant >> Heavenly Ridge A

EAST MTN
- Not the most exciting area.
- Highlight: The top part of East Tinyu before Across A drops off to the right, although keep in mind that area is one of the busiest in all of Rusutsu and also a bit narrow.
- East Vivaldi is cool in that it is so wide and there's hardly anyone there.
- Across B was seriously hard, with insane moguls on a pretty steep incline.
- Lowlight: Both East Tinyu (after Across A starting point) and East Vivaldi (basically the lower 1/2-2/3) end disappointingly in very long beginner terrain, although not as bad as Kiroro where it's so flat you struggle to make it to the bottom.

ISOLA/STEAMBOAT AREA
- Best part of the resort for me.
- Highlight: Everything off Isola 2 Quad is really cool. Isola Grand to Isola C or D has nice intermediate gradient all the way through, well-groomed, wide. Isola B has gradient that's manageable for advanced intermediate, but it goes on for quite a distance at a pretty consistent ~25degrees with moguls, so no walk in the park. Steamboat A and B are both long satisfying runs; A starts out wide, but gets a bit narrower and busier in some places in the lower half and offers a few curves and nice terrain variations; B sort of meanders through but quite enjoyable nonetheless.
- Rusutsu No.1 was a pretty challenging course for me. Pretty damn steep with moguls. Wasn't enough to pee my pants, but once was enough.

HEAVENLY AREA
- Did not ski Heavenly Canyon but, based on runs off Isola 4 Quad, this area was nice but can get boring after a while.
- Highlight: Heavenly Ridge A was my favorite. Rated as a single diamond, but I think it should be Intermediate; it's steeper than your average intermediate, yet appeared to be groomed with no moguls; really a fun run that you can do over and over.
- Heavenly Ridge B is also fun but is sort of lower-intermediate. Heavenly View is really a beginner's trail.

WEST MTN
- As Chinatrvl said, the runs over here are shorter but can be quite satisfying. I wish I had spent a bit more time over here. I did not try Bambi or Ever btw.
- Highlight: Giant! One of my favorite runs actually. Wide course with decent steepness without moguls and the cool thing is that you are greeted by amusement park rides at the bottom of the run.
- Elite is another short but decent groomed Diamond run.
- Lowlight: Lifts and trails are laid out in a rather disorganized fashion. It's a serious problem that the 3 lifts/gondola start from different places at the bottom of the hill. East Gondola 1 (coming from East Mtn) dumps you off at a seriously bad spot, as described above. Top of West Gondola is problematic in that there's such narrow real estate up there for a bunch of people to get their skis on. Rainbow Course from the top is rated green, but it is difficult to tell where/how that course starts. Apparently I went off-piste up there because I didn't know where the course was, and I ended up taking a spill after going over a series of mini bumps followed by a mini launching pad of packed ice.

OVERALL
Loved this place. It's really an intermediate's paradise. Lift tix and rentals expensive, though... it's priced way above Jpn standards. But what can you do? They market towards foreigners and everything's priced like it. Westin is fabulous. Hotel buffet very good. But it does lack a real natural onsen.