Good morning!

Another jam packed day today, this time in the very picturesque town of Nozawa.

I really can’t oversell how gorgeous this place is. It’s a bit more remote feeling than Hakuba, mainly because you’ve got to take a train and bus to get here. We thought it would be fun to visit a couple of different mountain towns so we can see the different experiences they offer. We knew ahead of time that Hakuba was flooded with Australians, and we were hoping Nozawa would have more local people.

Boy were we wrong.

We also chose Nozawa because they have a fire festival that was listed in my guidebook as a top 10 festival experience in Japan. Honestly, we more or less planned our trip around this festival, and went way out of our way to be in Nozawa when it was going on.

To go to the festival you have to be staying at a local spot in Nozawa, and we think we were only able to get a reservation at a hotel because someone else canceled. When we had looked a few weeks before everything was already booked up.

The catch about our reservation is that it was at a small traditional Ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese guest house. Jimmy and I had stayed in one on our last trip to Japan, but it was a fancy one with a tasting menu dinner and igloos on the roof.

This Ryokan was much closer to a hostel. We had the traditional futon bed (which is a mat on the floor with a duvet on top, shared toilets, and a bath house that was the only mode of bathing (no showers) and had set hours of exactly two hours in the evening for men and women. No access to shower or bath in the morning.

We did get our own private space for sleeping, and here it is:

Sleeping on the floor, not my thing. I think my camping mat has more support than the poor futon did. I kept thinking of all of the people much older than me who use them everyday. Hats off to them.

All that being said, this place was exceedingly clean despite the shared facilities, and the gentleman who runs it was busy taking care of things every moment I was awake.

And the traditional Japanese breakfast was great

The views from our room window and the windows of the shared space were also really beautiful

I had booked ahead and scheduled a guided snowshoe tour that began at 8am sharp, and I was really excited to take the gondola up the mountain. My guide was Taka, a former member of the Nozawa snow patrol who also spent time as a guide at Whistler. She told me the tour would be with a Japanese speaking group, but she spoke English and would be able to translate everything for me.

She delivered on all of that, and the other group were two Japanese women who were incredibly kind and fun. I had such a great time.

Here’s the gondola ride up:

Once we were at the top we strapped on our snowshoes, and Taka took us on an off trail trek through a beautiful forest to an overlook.

One of the things I loved about the tour was that Taka was incredibly knowledgeable about the plants and wildlife in the area, so she was able to talk about the different trees and animal tracks.

On the gondola up she pointed out a Japanese serow that was rooting around in the snow below us. I didn’t get a picture, but this is what the serow looks like;

Taka wasn’t sure of the English translation at the time so she just called him a goat, which cracked me up. Apparently they are goat adjacent, but I thought he looked more like a short chubby dear.

She also pointed out a tree that had bear claw marks on it. In the marks you could see that it had climbed the tree. She said the Japanese black bears are smaller than the North American version, but they have massively long claws and are more dense.

Here are the claw marks

And here’s what they look like (not my picture)

Further on the journey she also pointed out other signs of the bears climbing and eating branches off trees. I told her there seemed to be a lot of signs of bears around… maybe more than I’m comfortable with.

She said that black bears have always lived in the mountains around Nozawa, but that there was a mauling of a human IN THE VILLAGE, and that the local officials responded by putting up a bunch of warning signs. Perfect.

We didn’t end up seeing any bears, which was probably for the best.

We did see lots of rabbit tracks, fox tracks, and an animal that Taka called an itachi and described as being like a ferret. We did eventually see one scurrying away, but he was gone before I could get my phone out. Here is what he looks like

Google says he’s in the weasel family.

Taka also taught us to “bum slide”, something I’d never done snowshoeing before. It’s exactly what it sounds like. If you find a place too steep to walk down, you find cushy snow, through your legs out in front of you, and slide down on your bum. Taka found a couple bigger hills so we could get some speed going.

This was our crew. With me are Yoko and Yuka. They told us they’ve been friends for many years, and met at a coffee shop. Taka was really surprised by that and joked that meeting people out and about like that is rare in Japan because usually people just leave you alone in public. Sounds a bit like Seattle.

More snowshoeing pics

Taka took us to an overlook where we could see mountain ranges and the town below us. So beautiful. She also gave us cocoa and Japanese chocolate bars.

After the overlook we trekked back through woods to the gondola on the other side of town. I decided to stay at the top to see if Jimmy and Jordan wanted to meet up for lunch, and said goodbye to my crew.

I love treks like these, where I can go places I wouldn’t feel comfortable on my own. It was so peaceful in the forest, and we didn’t see anyone else the whole time. If you’re ever in Nozawa, let me know and I’ll give you Taka’s info.

When I texted the guys they told me they were still pretty far away, but they were on their way to the bottom of the gondola I went up in so I could meet them there if I wanted. I headed down the gondola I was at, which was older and more rickety than the first gondola.

I was also the only one in it, and felt like maybe they needed to have emotional support riders to go with people who are alone. I distracted myself by videoing my friends Joy and Wendy, and just enjoying the view.

I also found duck tape holding the door together. It did not inspire confidence.

When I got to the bottom, Google told me I had a 12 minute to walk to the restaurant they guys were at. Easy.

Turns out it was 12 minutes uphill. The second gondola dropped me off lower than the first one.

I didn’t get nearly as many pics of the village as I should have because it was so quaint. There were people selling fresh buns out of carts with the steam rising in the winter air, cute shops and restaurants, and little meandering streams that run through town.

You could tell everyone was getting ready for the fire festival that night.

I found the guys upstairs in a restaurant just off the gondola called Takesan Donobe Ramen, which does ramen in clay pots. That works to keep the ramen piping hot when it’s served. They also use local miso to make the broth.

It comes out steaming, hearty, and with a meatball. It’s perfect for a cold winter day.

Taxidermy at the restaurant

After lunch we split up again. The guys headed back to the mountain, and I headed in search of a bath.

Here are the snowboard pics I got from the guys:

The bathing hours at our Ryoken were 3-5pm for men and 6-8pm for women. We had plans for the 6-8 period, so I grabbed a towel and soap and headed for the closest public Onsen.

And here it is. Unlike the Marriott, this one was very traditional. You give a donation of a few coins in a box out front, then head inside. This one had people in it, so I didn’t take any pics of the inside. It was one big room with an area to remove and store clothes, spigots of cold water for washing and a giant tub of steaming hot water for soaking.

The Marriott had water that was pleasantly warm but not too hot or uncomfortable to get in to (perfect for tourists). Nozawaonsen is famous for its more traditional baths with water that feels like it’s pealing your skin off.

I used the provided bowls to mix the hot and cold water and was able to wash my hair and body. Then I tried to get in the tub.

My feet barely made it in, the heat was just so intense. A mom and her child walked in, and when the child got in the tub no problem, I put on my big girl pants and just hopped in.

While I was there quite a few people arrived, some local to Japan and some tourists or expats who work on the mountain. Everyone was happy to soak after a day in the snow, and we all chatted as we acclimated to the water.

Honestly, I loved it. Everyone was very natural and I never felt uncomfortable. It was nice to have a space of women relaxing and having a good time.

Here’s me after my bath

Here’s some pics of the walk back to ryoken

After the bath I stopped and got a little afternoon pick me up from a bakery while the guys used the bath in the ryoken.

We regrouped in our room, and decided to hit the streets to find dinner before heading to the fire festival.

When planning this trip we kept reading about what a big deal this festival was, we kept hearing people talk about how fun it is, and that everyone brings sake and just passes it around. We knew that the ceremonies started around 7, so we were aiming to be there around then.

We hadn’t made reservations for dinner, which was silly because there were so many people in town for the festival that everything was full. However we did find a tonkatsu spot that didn’t take reservations and had a table open up just as we got there.

We made it to the event location, where we saw a bunch of men on a pyre chanting away.

We read that in the festival the ages of 42 and 25 are considered unlucky for men, so they do this ritual to protect them from the coming year. The 42 year olds are standing on top of the pyre, and the 25 year olds are below holding ropes. People from town grab large torches and attempt to attack the pyre and set it on fire. The men holding the ropes try to protect the pyre and bat the fire away.

Sounds cool, right?

Let’s set the scene. It’s really cold. Which was expected. The crowd was huge, and we were all packed into an area around the pyre, standing at a slight incline. Nothing but ice below our feet. Seriously, just solid ice. Every time someone tried to move through the crowd (which happened A LOT) everyone was trying not to fall over on the ice.

We roll in just in time to see it start. Basically it starts with the men on the pyre chanting (honestly, those dudes looked like they were having the most fun of anyone). Then they raised the two statues. One statue kept falling over and almost hitting the crowd, but the eventually got it up.

As you can tell from that pic, the selfie sticks were plentiful. What you might not be able to tell is that most of the crowd watching are the Australians we were seeing everywhere. And they showed having done a lot of pregaming.

Which honestly was probably smart of them because no food or drinks were allowed in the area. Contrary to what everyone had told us, which was that sake would be shared around. Apparently everyone knew that was a myth but us.

After about an hour they built another pyre kind of in the crowd and lit it on fire. When that pyre fell over, I really thought we might all be goners; either from fire or stampede. Embers were flying on everyone.

Locals from the town grabbed torches and lit them with the fire from near the crowd. Then they ran towards the pyre with all the people on it and tried to get passed the young guys at the base and light the pyre on fire… you know, the pyre with all the 42 year olds on top.

At first it was kind of cute because it was mainly kids with torches, but as the hours (yes HOURS) wore on, the torchers got more aggressive, and the 25 year olds were getting their hair singed.

It honestly would have all been intense and exciting, except that it was so slow. They attacked that pyre for 3 hrs. Finally, at 10pm, they evacuated the dudes from the top (which took forever as it seemed they only had one rickety ladder), they set the whole pyre on fire.

Technically the event isn’t over until the pyre is completely burned and the fire is extinguished, but we left a bit early. By then it was almost 11pm, and we had been standing for 4hrs on ice in the cold.

I think it’s a really interesting cultural tradition for the town, but as a visitor it was mainly just boring. I think it’s been a little overhyped for tourists and has possibly lost some of its magic.

Crammed in with a bunch of drunk tourists who were being obnoxious (including a dude from Idaho drunkenly wacking people with the longest selfie stick I’ve ever seen) made it a pretty unpleasant experience.

I do hope that it brings some good luck to all those 42 and 25 year olds though. They really deserve it.

Since it had been a bit of a let down, I tried to convince my travel buddies to duck into a izakaya for some sake, but Jimmy was tired so we just went back to our room and fell asleep on our mats on the floor.

I was so tired that I actually fell asleep pretty fast.

Goodnight