Japan 🇯🇵 - Nagano

The Nagano prefecture is a winter wonderland, offering a perfect mix of world-class skiing and traditional Japanese culture. We spent a few days exploring the snowy peaks of Hakuba and Shiga Kogen, soaking in the historic onsens of Yamanouchi, and visiting mystical shrines.

Tips 👏

• Be very careful with the water temperature in the public onsens, if no one has been in before you the water can be super hot and you might need to manually cool it down for a while with cold water.
• Pace yourself during the onsen tour in Yamanouchi to avoid overheating or fainting from the drastic temperature changes (true story).
• Pack heavy snow gear if you plan to visit Togakushi Shrine, as the 2km walk to the main site involves trekking through deep snow in winter.

🏠 Accommodation

In Hakuba, we stayed at the Hakuba Station Room. It was a tiny, basic room located literally inside the train station. While it wasn't a luxury stay, it was very functional, cheap, and perfect for just one night before moving on.

In Yamanouchi, we upgraded to the Ichinoyu Katei. This was a lovely traditional hotel featuring tatami mats and futons. The authentic atmosphere was exactly what we were looking for in the city of nine onsens (although the traditional japanese food was too much for us at this time of the trip)

🚲 Getting there

We rented a car which gave us the flexibility to move between the different ski resorts and towns. Coming from Kanazawa, we crossed the Japanese alps to Hakuba, then to Yamanouchi for the Shiga Kogen ski resort. All the roads were super snowy/icy so SUV or snow-tires is a must in winter. It's probably possible to access those places with public transports, but it's quite spread so car was defo the best.

⏱ Duration

We spent three full days (Saturday to Monday) in the region, which felt like just enough time to fit in skiing, cultural sights, and the onsen tour without feeling too rushed. Could have added an extra ski-day.

🍜 Food & Restaurants

• Fukutora: Amazing place that do all kind of ramen & gyoza, including vegetarian version, delicious and fast!

Happo-one Skiing ⛷️

We started our trip on Saturday with an early wake-up in Hakuba. We rented our gear at Happo Spicy Rental (strongly recommend, awesome staff!) and bought our passes for Happo-One (one of the many resorts around). There was a bit of a wait, about a 30-minute queue because it was the weekend, but we were on the slopes soon enough. We skied all day until 3:30 PM, then dropped off the rental gear and drove straight to Yamanouchi. A bit tight but it was early season so only half the resort was open. The resort was awesome although lift fairly old-fashioned, but from the top we could ski with an amazing view on the mountain range. Funny/scary thing to note, in Japan folks are not used to put the security bar on the lifts, so give a heads-up when you pull it down if you're a sane european!

Shiga Kogen & Snow Monkeys 🐒

Sunday was a divided day. I woke up early and drove 30 minutes to Shiga Kogen resort for a half-day of skiing, the biggest resort in Japan. I rented my gear on the fly at HEAD Sports (ok but not great). Unfortunately it was still early season, so less than 30% was open, and the different areas were not connected via lifts. I alternated between the areas by driving around which was fairly annoying, specially because the road was covered in ice/snow. Early afternoon a snow-storm picked up so made my way down before getting stuck!

Meanwhile, Barbara took the hotel 'shuttle' (the car of the owner) that brought her to the base of the 30-minute muddy trail to see the famous snow monkeys bathing in their own hot springs.

We met back up early afternoon to attempt the full tour of the nine public onsens in Yamanouchi (need a key from your hotel to access them). They are all within walking distance from each other. We made it to the fifth one before Barbara unfortunately passed out in one of them, likely due to the intense combination of the heat and the cold air. We stopped the tour there and rested at the hotel to recover.

Togakushi Shrine ⛩️

On the last day, we drove one hour west of Nagano to visit the Togakushi Shrine. The landscape was incredibly impressive, featuring a path lined with giant cedar trees that are over 400 years old. Walking the 2kms to the shrine in the snow was insane, but definitely required the snow gear we packed. A must do if you're in the area in winter. After soaking in the views, we headed back to Nagano city to catch our train.

Hope this was helpful, you can ask us any questions on Instagram.