Nozawa Onsen Snow Report 29th January 2019
Another day in Nozawa Onsen and another blessing in the form of a sizeable dump. The official count is that 30 centimetres of fresh stuff fell upon the mountain overnight. Today should be another epic one on Mount Kenashi. The current snow is meant to ease as the day goes on. We’ll see a few more centimetres yet before it stops altogether.
Tomorrow looks as though it might clear up a bit. After all the snow we’ve had of late it might be nice to enjoy a clear day or two. Thursday should see us topped up with a few more centimetres throughout the day before easing into Friday ahead of sun and blue skies on Saturday. So it appears that we’re being blessed with the best of both worlds during January. We’d be hard people to please if we were disappointed with that. Stay safe and see you on the mountain!
What do conditions look like right now?
At 10:00 am today
Temp at the top; -8C
New snow since close; 30cm
New snow since 8am; 4cm
Base at the top; 355cm
Weather; snowing
With all the snowfall of late, it can be hard to imagine that Nozawa Onsen enjoys a pretty awesome Green Season too. It might be difficult to wrap one’s head around but those metres of snow will melt. The village and mountain take on a whole other vibe during the offseason. Ski runs become mountain bike trails. The lower runs open up farmland, as they have for the centuries this traditional farming village has been functioning.
Sure, there are fewer guests visiting during this time – for now, at least. With the increase in tourism to Japan not looking as though it will slow anytime soon, it’s getting harder to find that “real Japan” people come in search of. Luckily, Nozawa Onsen still has it in spades. In addition to all the growing activities and fresh local produce, there’s festivals (both new and traditional), hiking trails galore and of course, the local people.
Many of the guests who visited last Green Season did so in either big family groups staying in our self-contained properties, or couples looking for a cool, mountain escape in between the crowded streets of Tokyo and Kyoto. Nozawa Onsen Green Season remains something of a secret ….for now!