Myself and a few others are thinking of doing a trip to Nozawaonsen at the beginning of January. We would like to take my car ideally but I am a little concerned as I do not have Winter tires since I live in Tokyo.
Buying a brand new set of wheels + tires seems absolute overkill for 1 trip and storing them would be annoying. I am wondering if any of the following options might work for us.
* Buy a set of chains and keep them in trunk if needed
* Drive to the shinkansen station in Iiyama and take a 20 min bus up the resort
My car has AWD which I know can help with traction but won’t help braking or turning on ice. Any advice would be appreciated.
20 comments
Living in Nagano city. I would not advice to come here without a snow tires in January where snow is literally everywhere and it is a lot, also the temperature is really low even during the day. I think a summer tire and chain combination is not good, although I had never try that, because I have winter tires.
Either or is a good plan, it just depends what’s your preference. A few points though:
The chains won’t be optional, there are dedicated areas on the way up where to put the chains on (and take off when you come back down). Also summer tires lose a lot of their flexibility when the ground starts getting closer to zero so keep that in mind.
Also, your top speed is like max 40-50km/h with chains.
Another big minus point is that if there’s a massive dump on the day you’re coming back, they’ll close Kan-etsu and you’ll be home the next morning at the earliest… no such problem with a train.
I would recommend the Shinkansen.
The area near the Sea of Japan is one of the world’s heaviest snowfall areas. Unskilled people should not go there in January with poor equipment.
By the way, why should it be Nozawa Onsen? You may like Echigo-Yuzawa Onsen. Very close to the Shinkansen station, a hot spring and ski town.
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And if you actually drive, hover close to 15km/h, anything over and you will likely end up at the bottom of the mountain in record time, involuntarily.
*All I’m doing is one trip…*
All it takes is one trip to end your life. It’s not consecutive trips that slightly lower your HP gauge each time.
>*storing them would be annoying.*
Out of the two, people deem coffin storage to be the more annoying.
Take the shinkansen. Chains and only chains won’t cut it there.
Nozawa gets a huge amount of snowfall and its literally carved on the side of a mountain. Most of the streets are like 12% grades. (Though they have road heating)
Also if you need to ask this question you aren’t skilled enough to be driving there my man. Not in winter.
The fact that you’re posting here, hopefully means you know it is a risky proposition. Follow your Spidey sense. Not worth it. Be safe and enjoy the Shinkansen.
Having lived in the north of Japan during winter just be warned that a lot of places don’t salt the roads at all. Particularly the minor roads can be like skating rinks so driving on them without at least winter tires is pretty much begging for things to get pretty exciting quite rapidly.
Getting to Nozawa via skinkansen and bus is super easy. It’s also pretty compact so walking for place to place around the town doesn’t take long.
I also recommend taking the bus.
I worked in Shiga Kogen for 6 months, which isn’t too far from Nozawa Onsen (you can see it in the distance from the top of the mountain) and I can say that while you can drive up to the resorts, snow tires are absolutely required. The roads are slippery and often not salted.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend driving unless you can get snow tires AND chains to fit on them when necessary. Especially in January, you might end up going when there’s a big powder dump. You don’t want to end up stuck at the top of the mountain with a car that can’t go down.
Chalets up on the mountain, at least in Shiga Kogen, don’t have much parking space either. Obviously there are car parks, but you might have to walk further to the car park from wherever you’re staying than you would to a bus stop.
The buses are cheap and reasonably regular. It’s a much easier option.
If you’re gonna bus anyway might as well just take a night bus from your local big train station to Nozawa. Take it on friday night and you get there early saturday and can snowboard the entire day + most of sunday. No wasted time. Bring a box of wine to sleep on the bus. Take the money you saved on transportation and get a real nice hotel.
Even if you have a car, I’d say why risk it. Once you get into Nozawa, you can basically walk everywhere. Take the stress out: takyubin your gear and take the bus from Iiyama.
I used to snowboard ever week during the winter for years. Living in Tokyo, I usually go to either Yuzawa or Nagano area.
First of all certain areas of highway will only be availbale to snowtires or chained tires. Going without either one would not be possible. It is also very dangerous as its very hilly.
I usually go with regular tires + snowchains using a brand called “クイックイージー”. This is rubber chain with studs and I have only had 1 or 2 problems during my 200+ snowboard trips. Problems never occur on regular roads but on parking lots and steep back alleys.
If snowbaording is your main goal, Yuzawa could be better. There are dozen ski resorts near the Shinkansen station, and it has easier access with cars as well. Snow quality is about the same. Kagura has probably the biggest ski slopses in Honshu, although Nagano area ski slopes are more beautiful.
I went to Nozawa Onsen in December 2020 and took the bus from Iiyama station. I recommend getting snow tires or taking the bus into Nozawa Onsen. There was a ton of snow in December, I’m sure there is more snow in January.
I saw the Yamato drivers were using a van without wheels to make their deliveries. They had tank tread, which look like military tanks on the bottom, that’s how much snow there is. [https://togetter.com/li/929605](https://togetter.com/li/929605)
I prefer Shiga Kogen over Nozawa Onsen. The design of Nozawa ski resort is terrible. There are a couple areas near the ski lifts in the middle of the mountain that are flat for over 75-100 meters. You can’t build enough speed to go through those flat areas to bypass those lifts, so you end up taking off your snowboard to walk 25 meters until you find some downward slope. The worst ski resort I have ever been to in Japan.
Train and bus for sure.
Another option is rent a car with snow tires and 4wd at Nagano station. If you must drive make sure you at least have all season tires (don’t even try if you have summer tires) and put on chains as soon as you get off the freeway and keep them on for the whole trip. Chains in your trunk won’t help you when you hit a patch of ice
There are places around Tokyo that rent winter tires, but that may be more hassle then taking the train.
Nozawa is one of the more convenient ski areas to get to on Shinkansen, even if you miss the bus it’s not that expensive of a taxi from the station, so might be better to sit back and relax and crack open a cold one on the ride over
Actually you should buy winter tires whether you need to go to nozawa onsen or not. You should not be using summer tires in winter season in japan, just be safe than sorry.
awd won’t help you if you dont have proper winter tires. Rent a car from with winter tires form anyca/careco ?
Definitely don’t go without snow tyres. I lived in Nagano for 3 winters and saw multiple accidents daily on big snow days from people with inappropriate tyres
There are tire rental services where you can rent studless tires for a couple days. Afaik theyre not that cheap tho but I suggest you have a look
Oh man, had my Thule/Kong K-summit fail on me twice in Nozawa. Once by falling off the left wheel, and then by not giving enough traction to brake through a red light lol. Audi 4M AWD with summer tires. Never again