Last year we were supposed to go snowboarding, but I had to cancel the trip because I was too busy with work. This year the same outcome was close to happening, so I can’t tell you how glad I am to have made the trip work — this was simply one of the most amazing experiences. Nozawaonsen is pure magic.
Nozawaonsen is an onsen (hot spring) village located in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. The village is uniquely built on top of an intricate system that slowly releases the area’s high-temperature mountain waters across the town’s roads to assist locals with melting the heavy snowfall. The water is also famously utilized for the (mostly) free public baths and, perhaps most interestingly, is a crucial part of the method in creating “onsen tamago” — a traditional and simple Japanese breakfast item which stars an egg that has been slow cooked in the natural, hot spring waters. Alongside many of the public baths are designated wooden boxes featuring multiple cubicles filled with the water so that visitors may place their store-bought eggs into the repository while enjoying a nice, long soak and come out to perfectly soft-boiled eggs afterwards.
The ski/snowboard resort was incredible, made even better with plenty of snowfall and sunshine-filled weather during our visit. Thanks to establishment of a sister village in Austria since the 1970s, there is an abundance of western food, coffee, beer, and more, as well as plenty of authentic Japanese experiences, too.
To add even more fun to your trip, you can get a bus to the mountains to visit the freely roaming monkeys that spend the day in their own hot baths (about a ¥5000/person for a 3-hour round trip, including the 25 minute walk between the bus drop off area and the monkey park).
Overall, it was honestly the perfect trip, definitely being up there as one of the best experiences of my life. If you ever get the chance to visit during the ski/snowboard season, I cannot recommend it enough.
🏂♨️
