Hey everyone, my partner and I will be traveling to Japan in January and we will be spending 4 days and 3 nights around Nagano area. We are having trouble deciding where we want to base ourselves.
Here are some of the activities/criterias we are thinking:
1. ski for a day and check out a ski town but we are not big skiers (currently looking at Nozawa Onsen)
2. visit the snow monkey park
3. close to onsens
4. our dates coincidentally overlaps with the Nozawa Fire Festival (Jan 15th) so we’d love to go!([https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/2218/](https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/2218/))
5. We don’t have a car so preferably somewhere easily accessible (etc. a ryokan maybe) so we can visit restaurants/shops right at our foot steps
1. inspo pic I got from a website about Nozawa: [https://imgur.com/a/5fyoWeb](https://imgur.com/a/5fyoWeb)
Here is our itinerary:
Day 1 in Nagano (1/14/23) – Osaka → Nagano
* Check out of Osaka and go to Nagano
* Arrive around dinner time
* Maybe go to an onsen / explore a little
Day 2 in Nagano (1/15/23) – Ski day
* Ski
* Nozawa Fire Festival!
Day 3 in Nagano (1/16/23) – Snow Monkey Park
* Go to snow monkey park & explore
* Go to onsen after & explore
Day 4 (1/17/23) Nagano → Tokyo
* Check out, maybe explore a little more
* train to Tokyo
We found an airbnb that is 15 mins away from Liyama station \~45minute drive from Nozawa Onsen where the host will pick us up from train station, drive us to bus stops/ onsens, and cook for us. However, the airbnb is not within walking distance from restaurants/shops
Do you guys think if we should stay at the airbnb or find a ryokan right next to Nozawa Onsen? Or other suggestions?
Thank you!