Nozawa Onsen Accommodation, Nagano, The Alps Japan
Nestled in the Japan Alps is a magical place steeped in culture and with some terrific skiing and boarding. Nagano was home to the Winter Olympics in 1998.
Get in touch if keen to get knee deep in powder or neck deep in a Hot Spring soon…
Video
Check out our video of our 4 main properties below.
Nozawa Onsen is a very traditional town with beautiful hot springs, friendly locals, and awesome snow. Our Lodge gives you amazing value and we have a range of accommodation to suit any budget.
The Lodge is only 100m to the slopes and short stroll to town
Relaxed and comfortable atmosphere
In the centre of Japan’s main Island Honshu easy access from anywhere
You can fly direct to Tokyo and there is a shuttle bus direct to the Lodge
English and Japanese Speaking Staff to help with all your needs
Unique and beautiful place with breathtaking nature and culture
Nozawa Village is also famous for its hot springs, there are many nearby
Lots of terrain, with Gondolas, high speed quads, and long runs – very few lift lines
Thanks Mark – we were first invited to Nozawa years ago and have been enjoyed the skiing, the village and your hospitality ever since. Thanks for helping us enjoy it so much,
How can it still be so good? After the lacklustre final 10 days of winter many had given up hope of fresh snow of enough significance to improve riding conditions back to mid winter levels. In this case patience has paid off and we are currently experiencing one of the best weeks of the season, mostly facilitated by the entire lack of crowds. Yesterday was extremely good, certainly one of the best days of the season, deep dry powder that was effortless the glide through in combination with sun between the drifting snow clouds. Just perfect.
Today should be a similar affair, except with a warm airstream making its presence felt by the afternoon the snow will become heavier later in the day. However this morning conditions should be very similar to yesterday afternoon. The Yamabiko trees will be on fire! Challenge will be less deep but also good and Kandahar raceway will be excellent for fast carving.
Another moderate dump is forecast overnight with light snow continuing into tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the last good powder day for now. Sun will prevail from Sunday until Tuesday in combination with a gradually rising freezing level.
Its still coming down here in Nozawa Onsen. Looking out the window this morning will incite no shortage of excitement for powder enthusiast with persistent moderate snow accumulating 10cm of fresh since last lifts yesterday. The word of the day today will be ‘epic’.
Yesterday we saw some superb conditions, certainly the best in recent memory, probably since mid February at least. Deep but not bottomless powder snow blanketed the resort once more creating a blank canvas to work upon. The snow was in excellent conditions all day with cold temperatures and light to moderate winds. Crowd levels were incredibly low, as to be expected in March.
We should expect light to moderate snow continue all today becoming isolated overnight. A brief spike in temperature tomorrow to 1000m will precede another front for tomorrow night, which has received a decent overnight upgrade. Light falls will then continue into Saturday. Our first clear day for the week is predicted for Sunday.
Kelsey slides through a narrow rocky chute somewhere in Nozawa Onsen.
Base up top: 445 cm Temp Top; -7 Degrees
Base at bottom; 230 cm
New Snow since close: 40 cm
Weather; Snow
Over the last few weeks in Nozawa Onsen we have been through several storm cycles that had shown much promise, according to forecasts, but failed to deliver snowfalls of any significance. Im pleased to say that this run of over expectations has well and truly finished. Since late yesterday afternoon the snow has fallen thick and fast with overnight accumulations pushing up towards the 40cm mark on the upper reaches of the mountain. Snow to village level has also been significant with 20cm of collection at 600m above sea level. Safe to say the riding will be excellent today.
Not to dismiss what was on offer yesterday. We saw some very uncrowded slopes in combination with fresh snow making for many happy faces defending the hill during the day. Temperatures became extremely cold during the afternoon providing some of that cold siberian smoke that was missing in action for the past two weeks.
The run of excellent skiing and boarding is set to last for the rest of the week with cold temperatures and continuing light to moderate snowfalls until late Saturday. So if you are not here skiing or boarding in Nozawa Onsen you should wish you were.
Snow has fallen once more in Nozawa Onsen. 20cm has collected on the upper mountain while around 5cm has accumulated in the village. Heavy rain fell in town last night, however this obviously fell as snow from mid mountain and the upper elevations. Expect the snow on the upper slopes to be wind packed with a denser consistency than normal. Wind strength for today has been downgraded to moderate levels with snowfall totals for the next 24 hours receiving an upgrade. A win win situation.
Yesterday we experienced some more quality spring conditions. Although overcast, the snow was slushy, not so much so, and fairly fast running underfoot. Definitely better than what was expected. Again, with light crowds the groomed runs and park were in sensational form.
Looking at this weeks forecast snow should ease slightly tomorrow, falling at moderate rates. Snow showers will then continue all week until Saturday, possibly even Sunday. Following this, clear weather is expected.
Today we have a fairly windy, overcast but dry morning. The freezing level is sitting high, at around the same elevation as the peak of Nozawa Onsen, Mt Kenashi. As a result predominantly soft and slushy snow will feature on the hill today. Well groomed pistes again will be the best bet and the less ridden slopes will be stickier. We may experience some precipitation in the form of prefrontal rain showers later in the day but these will only be light and localised.
Yesterday was an awesome day for spring skiing. The slopes were soft and forgiving but the slush was shallow with a firm base and the snow was very fast considering the temperatures. Even with many weekend punters about there were many open areas for high speed carving or jibbing small features off to the side.
According to the forecast a strong westerly front should cross the region later tonight bringing with it snowfalls and very cold temperatures. Given the so far this season untested wind direction snowfall amounts are uncertain, a surprise for tomorrow morning. The powder should continue to fall all tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at this stage to varying degrees of accumulation. A significant run of snowfalls.
