Nuxfanabroad

Don't mean to pre-empt @Nuxfanabroad, but my wife who is from Himeji says that skiing is really nice around Nagano - in fact, it's sort of a ski mecca (90 resorts or so near Nagano City).  They should also have a number of resort type amenities based on winter Olympics build out from the 90s.  Maybe @Nuxfanabroad can confirm.  Hope this helps a little, @Jimmy McGill.

@bigbadcanucksSure has that right Jimmy. Nagano & of course Hokkaido, are world-renowned. Pretty sure you mentioned them places in the past. Did you say you'd been to one of them?(forget)

Bigbad, Funny you mentioned Himeji, that lovely little Castle town your wife hails from. In the northern part of that prefecture(Hyogo) you might find this place interesting, Jimmy...

hachikita.jp/englishpage/

They say it's a 2.5 hr bus ride north from Osaka. In such a place you 2 could prob find a charming, small Inn(Minshuku). Apparently there are 20 or so, up there.

Hyogo's quite a large prefecture. Yrs back I'd cycle up there, directly north from Himeji city, we'd visit a little town called Haga. Had heard back then there were some nice resorts for winter sport in that region.

Himeji Castle is also worth a visit. One of the remaining "original" castles & a UNESCO, world heritage site. Also used in several of Japan's most famous movies/shows(The Yakuza, Shogun, The Last Samurai, etc...)

awesome thanks guys. 

We've only been tp Tokyo (which was pretty mind blowing) and this time we want to go somewhere smaller, and get some skiing in too.