Maiko Snow Resort Safety & Emergency
In an emergency
Many Japanese fire departments handle 119 calls in major foreign languages via three-way simultaneous interpretation through a telephone interpretation center, 24 hours a day, year-round. Reviewed 2026-07-21
Medical facilities nearby
This list shows the nearest 15 hospitals, 10 clinics, 10 pharmacies and 5 dentists, plus every emergency hospital. More are in the area.
Facts marked "From website" come from the facility's own website or the town's page. The national medical register does not list them, so check with the facility before you go.
| Facility | Straight line | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital 10 | ||
| Reception hours are in the details | 5.7 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details Accepts emergencies | 8.4 km | 15 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details Accepts emergencies | 11.7 km | 17 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 15.7 km | 32 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details Accepts emergencies | 22.6 km | 31 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 27.9 km | 27 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 30.1 km | 29 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 31.2 km | 31 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 38.5 km | 40 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | Not listed | Drive time not shown |
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| Clinic 10 | ||
| Reception hours are in the details | 1.6 km | 6 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 2.5 km | 5 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 2.5 km | 5 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 6.0 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 6.3 km | 12 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 6.5 km | 12 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 10.0 km | 16 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 11.3 km | 14 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 11.3 km | 14 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 11.3 km | 14 min |
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| Dental 5 | ||
| Reception hours are in the details | 5.9 km | 9 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 5.9 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 6.0 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 6.0 km | 12 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 9.1 km | 14 min |
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| Pharmacy 9 | ||
| Reception hours are in the details | 2.5 km | 5 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 5.7 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 5.7 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 5.8 km | 11 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 5.9 km | 10 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 6.6 km | 12 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 8.5 km | 15 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 8.5 km | 15 min |
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| Reception hours are in the details | 11.3 km | 14 min |
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Pre-trip planning notes
Gathered ahead of your trip as a planning aid — details change; verify locally on arrival.
- Rescue protocol
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Maiko staffs its own patrol unit — its safety report lists patrol members among the winter employees who go through pre-season lift-rescue training, and names a joint patrol-and-ski-school rescue drill run during the season. So the people who come and get you off the hill train with the ski school, not separately from it. What the resort asks of everyone else is fixed in its terms: help with the rescue, report the accident, and expect to be asked who you are. One place this does not reach is the Haglofs tree-run area at the gondola summit, which the resort states patrol does not sweep.
As of 2026-08-25 - Backcountry policy
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Skiing outside the marked courses is a prohibited act under Maiko's terms, as is entering or riding a closed course. The one sanctioned exception is the Haglofs tree-run area in the Okusoechi zone at the gondola summit, which is officially outside the courses and officially open: free, but only with an advance application and a check-in at the day ski centre 1F ticket counter or at the CAFE at the TOP 'ITADAKI' by the gondola summit station. You are lent an armband that must be back by 17:00, a helmet is compulsory, and it is 18 and over (13-18 only with a guardian's consent and accompanying them). The resort states patrol does not sweep that area, and closes it when weather makes it unsuitable.
As of 2026-08-25 - Nearest clinic
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The nearest is the municipal Nakanoshima Clinic, in Sengoku — the same district as the base area. It is a general clinic covering internal medicine, general surgery, paediatrics and dermatology, and it takes first visits without an appointment, which makes it the sensible first stop for something minor. It lists no X-ray, CT, MRI or ultrasound, so it is not the stop for a suspected fracture. Read its hours carefully: the city, which runs it, closes Wednesday MORNINGS and opens Saturday mornings only on the second and fourth Saturday of the month. Two more general clinics sit in Shiozawa, a few minutes from the interchange: Ambe Clinic, the best-equipped small clinic here with chest X-ray, ultrasound and endoscopy but no CT, taking walk-ins and closed all day Thursday; and Houju Clinic, internal medicine and cardiology, closed all day FRIDAY and the one clinic here that books first visits rather than taking them off the street. For an actual ski injury the department you want is orthopedics, and that means Yasukawa Orthopedic Clinic by Muikamachi station — walk-in, open six days, closed Thursday and Saturday afternoons — with one honest caveat: no source states that it has an X-ray machine.
As of 2026-08-25 - Nearest emergency hospital
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Niigata Prefecture publishes the list of designated emergency hospitals, and four of the sixty sit in this area. Three of them are in Minamiuonuma City itself. Minamiuonuma City Hospital in Muikamachi is the nearest, a secondary-emergency hospital in the rotation, taking after-hours and holiday patients around the clock — it asks you to phone before coming, and states plainly that after-hours care is a duty doctor giving first-line treatment with minimal medication on hand. Saito Memorial Hospital at Kakenoue is also in the rotation and describes itself as a secondary-emergency hospital accepting emergency patients 24 hours; its neurosurgery department runs a 24-hour emergency service that names head injury explicitly, it asks for no referral letter and does not work by appointment, and it has CT and MRI. Uonuma Kikan Hospital at Urasa sits above the rotation as the tertiary centre. The fourth, Yuzawa Town Hospital, is over the town line to the south. Every one of these runs emergency intake around the clock, which is a different thing from their outpatient hours — all three city hospitals close outpatients on Sunday, and all three close them across the New Year. For advice before deciding, Niigata runs the #7119 line, explicitly for anyone living in OR STAYING IN the prefecture: 18:00 to 08:00 on Monday to Saturday and around the clock on Sundays and holidays, free apart from the call charge, though no multilingual support is stated.
As of 2026-08-25 - Pharmacy
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There is a dispensing pharmacy in the resort's own district: Kyoso Mirai Maiko Pharmacy in Sengoku, insurance-designated so it can actually fill a prescription, open straight through 08:30 to 18:10 on weekdays, and reachable round the clock out of hours through a forwarded mobile. It takes cards and electronic money. Its weakness is Saturday — only the second and fourth Saturday of the month. For a Saturday, Wakodo Pharmacy in Shiozawa is the one to aim at: a full day, 08:30 to 19:00, same as a weekday, plus cards and the only English recorded at any pharmacy here, described honestly as broken and needing advance notice. Wakaba Pharmacy, also in Shiozawa, is cash only and closed all day Thursday. All three close on Sundays and national holidays, and all three close over the New Year — Maiko Pharmacy and Wakaba from 29 or 30 December to 3 January, Wakodo for the first three days of January. Bring enough of anything you take regularly to cover that week.
As of 2026-08-25 - Pediatric care
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Two paediatric clinics serve the city, both around Muikamachi rather than near the slopes: Muikamachi Children's Clinic, general paediatrics and allergy with a general internal-medicine clinic added in 2025, and Donguri Children's Family Clinic, paediatrics and internal medicine. Both see adults too, and neither publishes any out-of-hours or emergency arrangement. Among the hospitals, Uonuma Kikan Hospital at Urasa lists paediatrics; Minamiuonuma City Hospital's own outpatient table does NOT list it, although the ministry registry does — a disagreement left as found rather than settled. No source names a designated paediatric emergency receiving hospital for this area, so do not plan on one by inference. What is firmly published is the advice line: Niigata runs #8000 for children under 15, for anyone living in or staying in the prefecture, 18:00 to 08:00 Monday to Saturday and around the clock on Sundays and holidays, free apart from the call charge. No multilingual support is stated for it.
As of 2026-08-25 - Major trauma center
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Uonuma Kikan Hospital at Urasa, in this same city. It appears on the Fire and Disaster Management Agency's national list of emergency and critical care centres as Niigata's sixth, it calls itself an emergency and trauma centre running a 24-hour emergency department with in-hospital triage, and it has its own heliport. The helicopter that would bring someone there is the western doctor-heli, based at Nagaoka Red Cross Hospital, whose area covers Chuetsu, UONUMA and Joetsu. The limit worth knowing before a late run: the prefectural operating rules put flights from 08:30 until sunset, with requests accepted only until 17:30 or thirty minutes before sunset, whichever comes first. An injury after dark goes by road. The flight itself costs nothing — the operating rules state that the doctor-heli transport is free, and that only the medical care given at the scene is billed under the normal insurance rules.
As of 2026-08-25
Show this to staff
Each line is in Japanese a receptionist can read, with its meaning underneath.
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スキー中にけがをしました。
I was injured while skiing.
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ここがとても痛いです。
It hurts a lot here.
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診察を受けたいです。
I would like to see a doctor.
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海外旅行保険に入っています。
I have travel insurance.
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クレジットカードで払えますか？
Can I pay by credit card?
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英語を話せる人はいますか？
Is there anyone who speaks English?
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保険請求用の診断書と領収書をください。
Please give me a medical certificate and a receipt for my insurance.
Cost, insurance and medicines
- Rescue costs
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Maiko is unusually explicit about this, and the answer is that it depends entirely on where you were. Get hurt on an open run and the resort's patrol brings you down; nothing in its terms bills you for that. Break the rules — ski outside the courses, or enter a closed one — and the terms say the resort will mount a rescue, alone or with the authorities, and then bill you afterwards for everything it cost: labour, snow machinery, running the lifts, the lighting, the lot. The sanctioned Haglofs tree-run area publishes the actual rate card, which is the clearest signal of scale anywhere on the site: the search-and-rescue team itself, each patroller, a snowmobile and a snowcat are each charged BY THE HOUR, in tens of thousands of yen each, with standby staff, meals and any helicopter request billed at cost on top. Sign for that area and you also sign that if the resort has to ask the police for a mountain rescue on your behalf, the responsibility and the cost are yours or your guardian's. Outside the resort's own rules, the public chain does not send a separate rescue bill: the prefecture's doctor-helicopter operating rules state that the flight itself is free, and that what gets billed is the medical care given at the scene, under the normal insurance rules.
As of 2026-08-25
Japan's National Health Insurance does not cover tourists — hospitals bill the full cost and generally expect payment upfront by cash or card. Ordinary travel insurance often excludes off-piste and backcountry rescue; dedicated mountain-rescue insurance exists, so check your policy before you ride.
Reviewed 2026-07-21Some common medicines are restricted in Japan — e.g. codeine-containing products, pseudoephedrine above set limits, and ADHD stimulants — and may require advance permission to bring in. Check the MHLW guidance before you travel.
Reviewed 2026-07-21Nothing here is medical advice. We compile this information from Japan's national medical registers and the official websites of facilities and resorts, as a planning aid. Hours, phone numbers and services change, and we cannot guarantee that any of it is current or correct. Decisions you make with it are your own responsibility: check with the facility before you go, and in an emergency tell ski patrol or call 119.