Day 1
We wanted to take advantage of a three day weekend in Japan so we decided to go skiing somewhere new. Lot of tours seem to go to Nozawa Onsen and after comparing it to others on the list it seemed like the next best place to try. I generally look for ease of access, more beginner friendly runs, and less complicated layout in terms of ski lifts, rental shops, distance from hotels, etc. Since we were going on a Japanese holiday weekend, we knew it would be super crowded but as always it’s still frustrating the day of travel. Hotel choices were limited and a bit pricey due to demand so we actually ended up staying at a different hotel each night for this trip.
Even though we caught the first train from Kannai to Tokyo Station there was still a ridiculous line for the shinkansen (reserved seats were sold out). I ended up having to stand for most of the way to Iiyama station. From Iiyama Station to Nozawa Onsen we caught the bus (used the ticket machine and thankfully there’s more than one bus per scheduled departure). Since a lot of people are getting off the same train as you and going for the bus, a long line forms outside (so don’t dilly dally getting off the train).
When we finally got to Nozawa Onsen, we found the hotel so we could leave our bags there (still too early for check-in). The staff was kind of old and weird…and not always present. Eventually we left our bags in a side room as did other people (and the staff didn’t even ask who we were so maybe not the safest room – but it’s Japan).
Since we weren’t going to fit a full day of skiing in we decided to relax and just ski half a day in the afternoon. In the meantime, we walked around the Northern part of town a little bit. Went up the walkway escalator towards Hikage Station area and had a little trouble finding the ski museum. Thought it was closer to the actual ski lift area but you have to walk a little ways up the hill and take the path to the left towards the other lodges. Once you get to the museum, don’t let the outside fool you… it was more interesting than I thought. Everything is mostly in Japanese but I still thought it was worth it all things considered.
After the museum, we had lunch (of course food was expensive everywhere) and went to get our ski rentals at Thanx. Thanx was cheaper than Salomon and they had convenient free lockers (especially good for leaving regular shoes) and an overnight dry room. Both rental place were at Nagasaka Station.
After skiing for the afternoon, we realized the runs were more interesting on the Hikage side. This was not a problem though because you can get to that side easily if you take the gondola from Nagasaka side after picking up your rentals. It’s also pretty easy to ski back to Nagasaka from Hikage at the end of the day to return the rentals.
We left our skis and boots at Thanx, changed back to our normal shoes, and then went to the main street area (it’s a small town, hard to miss) where all the omiyage/liquor shops are (I passed on the 2L/3L Asahi this time hehe).
We had dinner at the hotel which was not bad but still a relatively pricey place (no choice anyway during holiday weekend)… I don’t think I would’ve normally recommended such a place under normal circumstances.
Day 2
The hotel breakfast the next morning was ok. We checked out early (¥28080 total) and left our bags in the other room again since we’d be switching accommodations later in the day. Then we went to get our skis and boots from Thanx to start our full day of skiing.
Gondola lines (and others) in the Nagasaka area were very long in the morning. It was also snowing with low visibility overall this day. We spent a lot of time on the Hikage side this time. Route 21 (green line) seemed to have the best ski time/lift time ratio for us hehe.
We had sandwiches for lunch which were pricey but tasted good at least. Lines for the lifts were not as bad now and the weather cleared up late in the afternoon making for really nice weather and views.
I particularly enjoyed the snow parks and mounds on the side which make even the green runs interesting. By end of the day, Marie even wanted to do reds! hehe… she got better on every run. Meanwhile I was crashing hard several times towards the end of the day haha… ski malfunction or just junk/tired? hehe
After skiing, we returned our equipment, got our things from the first hotel and then just decided to walked to our next accommodation. The second place we were staying at was a very small minshuku style place. Bunch of kids running around… all family owned and operated kind of place. No napkins or towels provided though which I still thought was a little odd but by now it’s not so shocking in Japan. There was only a small bath area and I had only a small wash cloth to dry myself in the cold room. It seemed like everywhere we went this trip was colder indoors than outdoors for some reason. Dinner was not too bad and again I know choices are limited in this town. After dinner we just relaxed in our room watching the Winter Olympics on TV (same as night before).
Day 3
Next morning we had a small breakfast at 8am. The hosts announced the meals over a speaker system. This place had no western toilets at all so I decided to wait until we got to Iiyama Station to do my business hehe.
Checked out at 9am (¥8100/each)… it was snowing again and the roads looked kind of scary to be driving out of town… made me a little nervous on the bus. We were catching the bus back to Iiyama Station from the Nakao bus stop just down the street from our last accommodation. There was a tiny omiyage shop that was very generous w/ free samples right next to the bus stop hehe. There was more than one bus for each scheduled time again which was good because the first bus that came was already full so we got on the second bus (¥600).
We didn’t have time to look around in Iiyama Station two days before but turns out there wasn’t much to see anyway (small place) so we just got in line for the shinkansen. We were barely first in line (@ 1005 for 1037 train) but still there were no seats on the train. Travelling during Japanese holidays really sucks… Marie got a seat after one stop and I got seat after about halfway. Tourists were laying down and blocking aisles… the typical amount of stupid/lazy/rude.
Since we had just gone to Hakuba earlier in the year, I was often thinking which one I liked more… definitely hard to say. Nozawa is older, more Japanese, smaller town, with shorter (the ones we did anyway) but more interesting runs. Happo-one was more new feeling, more western, bigger, longer runs. Both were good… if snow was better at Nozawa, I think I’d go there again… either way, both are great!
Update: Went back to Hakuba a second time in January 2019 and found myself wanting to do the Nozawa runs instead (I had mixed the two up in my head). So in hindsight now, I think I like Nozawa more.