Nozawa Onsen

Nozawa Onsen is a village steeped in legend and history and famed almost as much for its spa water as it is for its turnips.

Walking around the village gives you that feeling that not a lot has really changed here for a long time, and it’s so much the better for it. There’s cobled streets, narrow alleys, market stalls and old restaurants with no discernable entrances. If there was an old shop that sold Gremlins, it would probably be here. 

The village has 13 free public onsens fed by the Ogama spring, which is has been used for centuries to not only clean the population but to cook much of its food.

Skiing at Nozawa goes all the way back to 1912 and the second ski lift in Japan was built here. The resort is twinned with St.Anton in Austria, which was the home town of Hannes Schneider, creator of the dreaded snowplough technique amongst others. Hannes taught in Nozawa and has one of the trickier slopes named after him.

The mountain has the layout of a huge hairy hand, palm down on the land. Most of the 50km of pistes run along the top of the hand and then down the fingers to the three base areas, are cut through the thick Birch and Beech trees. Much of the beginner terrain lies between the fingers and in an area called Uenotaira, which is a wide plateau and plays host the terrain park and halfpipe.