Japan has lots of snowy places but did you know that there is one place less than two hours from Tokyo? I didn’t. Wilf had it in his mind to go to the town of Yuzawa, which is in Niigata Prefecture. Moisture laden wind comes from the Sea of Japan, hits the Japanese alps and drops a lot of that moisture on Yuzawa. No snow in October, of course, but the signs are there…
The town does not have a big population – about 8,000, but it is a stop on the bullet train line to Niigata city. In Hilly parts of Japan the bullet train tends to go through, not up and down the hills, and Yuzawa is no exception – the train pops out of a tunnel, stops and then heads into another tunnel. The train station and tracks are built on what looks like a viaduct to keep the whole thing level. Since the town is nestled amongst the mountains it all works out.
There are 11 ski resorts either in or directly accessible in the valley. While most international skiers got to Nagano or Hokkaido, Yuzawa is 90 minutes from Tokyo and so attracts a lot of short term visitors from the big city. The train station has ranks of luggage and ski lockers. There are shops all along the street offering ski related services. And hotels! Big ones, small ones, ones in town, ones out of town with shuttles. Things are pretty quiet in October but in another month it will be full of people and all the sleepy little bars will be hopping.
But Sharon and Wilf – why are you in this town out of season? Besides the skiing there is a huge rock music festival in July and there is also a triennial art festival. During the 2018 edition of the art show an installation was created in which a tunnel was carved into the rock to access a view of the Kiyotsu Gorge, one of Japan’s ‘Three Great Chasms’ We thought we might go see it. But in the end we didn’t – it turns out to be something best visited by car. The gals at the visitors info centre were very perky and enthusiastic, but…. One bus in the afternoon up there and they were a little unclear about the return process. From the bus stop a 30 minute walk up to the site – on the side of the road on a narrow sidewalk. No washrooms at the site. And perhaps most important of all no conbini (convenience store) up there. Given that rain was threatening we added this all up and thought – nope. On to attraction number two. Sometimes you’ve just gotta pivot.
There’s a ski resort above the town accessible by gondola right around the corner from our hotel! I lucked out and got the perfect shot while waiting for our ride down. Here’s what the townsite looks like without the gondola …
You can see the train station – it’s a long one as the bullet train is long. This area if famous for its rice and you can see little rice growing areas in the distance – the view in the other direction has even more rice growing areas.
Anyhoo – up we went and it was beautiful up there. At the base was another big facility for skiers with lockers and change rooms and everything to get them off for the day. From the top of the gondola they could ski down the backside a ways and pick up another lift that would connect them to the next peak over, from which they could ski down and catch a shuttle back to the base of the first gondola. This side was steep – looked like pretty advanced runs. Looking across the town we could see other ski hills that looked a little more beginner friendly.
A field of bassia scoparia, aka summer cypress or burning bush with one of the skills beyond. It was beautiful up there. Alpine gardens to walk in
The requisite instagrammable shot. The group of young women who took the picture for us were all a flutter because we held hands…..
To get to this pond we took a chairlift down into the valley.
The other way down was….
Zoom Zoom from the chairlift top
There was also a zip line up there. It was a beautiful day, the air was fresh and smelt so good with all the plants around us. It was a lovely way to spend a day.
The last thing this town is known for is the ‘wall of sake’. The train station is really big for such a small town, and it has a big market inside. And way at the back…
The outside of the sake museum, showing labels of all the 100 or so types they have inside.
Wilf – making friends?
Inside you buy five tokens for 500 Yen.
Each selection costs between 1-3 tokens and you have a little cup to collect your choice. It’s kind of intimidating – so many to choose from. We tried three locals ones and they were all really good. Next to this section you can buy bottles of most of the samples.
Besides snow, rice and skiing the other thing this town has is lots of hot water. There are many hot springs and the town has several public footpaths around the town – always welcome by footsore tourists!
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