Nozawa Onsen Fantastic Snow Resort

Hello Dear Great Ones,

I just spent four awesome days at Nozawa Onsen, Japan, with one of the best 36 year old filipina skiers in the world.  That would be my lovely Celia. Nozawa Onsen is located near Nagano, host of the 1998 winter Olympics, and has been in operation for over  a hundred years making it one of the oldest ski areas in Japan if not the world.  Nozawa Onsen proclaims itself as a: Fantastic Snow Resort, which I at first found rather amusing and even mocked.  99% of all ski areas call themselves ski/snowboard resorts, but nope not this area.  Well, after being at Nozawa Onzen and seeing it for myself I am not mocking now.  It is a Fantastic SNOW resort.  

Due to the colliding of cold siberian winds blasting down from the north with warm, moist, pacific ocean air drifting in from the south there are massive snow storms in the Nagano area.  And I mean massive.  I have seen lots of snow in my time, but nothing like what I saw at Nozawa Onsen.  Which of course makes for great ski/snowboarding conditions.  It was lovely to float on powder.

The village of Nozawa Onsen itself is a quaint, rustic place, with heaps of bath houses, where you can soak with the locals in screeching hot, natural hot springs.  Onsen apparently means hot springs.  The only problem is that parts of the village smell like rotten eggs from the sulphur smell of the hot springs.  No matter, it was great to soak the aching bones, after a long day of skiing, in an onsen.

The ski hill itself had great terrain and was especially friendly for beginners, with nice, flat and long runs.  The Japanese people on the hill were very friendly and there were also heaps of Australians. They were friendly too.  And of course there were Germans!  Ze are everyvere!  They were also kind.  Yet, despite all these people from all over the world, lift lines were tiny and there was plenty of room to ski.  

Finally, the temperature at Nozawa hovered around  -3 celsius.  Awesome, skiing in cold is not as fun.  And the other sweet part of Nozawa was that lift tickets were reasonable.  About $50 Canadian.  Folks I have discovered a ski paradise.  And it is in Japan. Ya hoo!!!   

(Note the small pics are from Celia's iphone.  They get blurry when you make them bigger.  The big ones are from my camera)

With one of the best 36 year old filipina skiers in the world.

Gearing up.

Happy time!

Lodge Hahnenkamm.  An Austrian style lodge in Japan run by Japanese.  Works for me.

Great snow, great views.

See the guy shovelling snow off the roof.  The amount of snow was unreal.

Some more great views.

This run was the skyline trail which ran along a ridge of a mountain.

There are two gondolas to whisk you to the top.

Colorful snowboarders.

Celia taking a rest.

Like Johnny Cash, I am a man in black.  The thing on my back is a (black) backpack.

Lovely views and scenes:

Some scenes from the quaint village of Nozawa Onsen.

A free public bathhouse.  The hot springs are super hot.

Street scene.

Eating at a Japanese restaurant.  Not flexible enough anymore to sit cross legged for too long.

A typical Japanese meal.  Lots of fish and small portions.  Japanese cuisine is not known for making you fat.  Hmmm

Enjoying our meal.

Quaint.

Have a great week everyone!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk