Nozawa Onsen and Myoko – Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Area – Nozawa Onsen and Mt. Myoko

The morning after we arrived in Tokyo, we woke up to quite a snowy, wet city.  I assumed that this meant that our next destination in Japan, Nozawa Onsen, a small mountain village in Nagano prefecture, had received several times the amount of snow that fell in Tokyo.  I was wrong.  We took a Shinkansen (bullet train) from a station outside of Tokyo to Liyama (pronounced eeyama) which is one stop past Nagano and, as the train got closer to Liyama, there was less and less snow.  Apparently, the storm had been inverted meaning the higher elevation areas were actually warmer so it had mostly rained on the mountain in Nozawa. Seeing the lack of snow caused me to lament coming up to the area. We had come to the mountains mainly to ski and I was worried that our Japan ski experience would consist of a bunch of icy groomed runs.  I was wrong again.  It snowed like crazy for the first 18 hours we were in town but more importantly, we came to find that Nozawa Onsen is a lovely village with great people where it always sounds like rain.

Nozawa is crisscrossed by a series of stone ditches that run down every street and carry away rain, snowmelt and the constant flow of water from the hot spring (onsen).  These ditches are incredibly useful during big snowfalls as we saw many of the residents shoveling huge amounts of snow into the ditches so it could be carried down the hill and into the Chikuma River.  It always sounded like rain to me, though some might more accurately describe it as the sound of a mountain stream.

We stayed in a small ryokan called LaFore Yamane.  It was a completely magical and heartwarming experience.  The Japanese have a reputation for being welcoming and gracious and the innkeepers here were no exception.  Many of the villagers in Nozawa do not have a shower or bath at their house and instead bathe in one of the 13 onsen houses located throughout the village.  We were lucky enough to have one of these 13 about 40 feet from the door of the ryokan.

The first night in town we decided to eat at an okonomiyaki restaurant just down the street from the inn.  The menu consisted of many types of okonomiyaki which is a sort of savory Japanese pancake omelet thing.  It is usually an egg batter mixed with shredded cabbage, grilled protein of some sort (chicken, squid, pork etc.) and then griddled.

 

They are often served with a hefty drizzle of Japanese mayo and a sweet brown sauce.  The okonomiyaki at this place were far better than the ones we used to get around the corner from our apartment in SF which were always too thick and never even close to cooked in the middle. It is always fun to watch someone work when they basically make one thing all the time.  There is quite a bit of this specialization in Japan and it seems that in many ways it is respected to excel and truly master one craft, whether it is a bowl of ramen, an egg pancake or even calligraphy.

The chef at this place was no exception; while I cannot compare the taste of his okonomiyaki against many others, the execution of his craft was quite a thing to watch.

We had traditional Japanese breakfast at the ryokan both mornings we stayed there and, as it turned out, Masako (our hostess) also happened to be an exceptional cook.  Jamie and I both love Japanese breakfast which often consists of rice, a small piece of fish, miso soup, and one or two types of egg.  In our case, we got two types.  One egg was prepared as an omelet (tamago-yaki) and one was steamed in the heat of the onsen. What a treat!

An Australian couple (at least 90% of the non-Japanese in town were Australian) recommended we eat dinner at our ryokan. So, on our second night Masako prepared a true feast called a kaiseki.  We will both remember this as one of the best meals ever.  Not only for its novelty, with basashi (horse sashimi), but also the attention to detail that went into each small dish.  The variety was astounding: some dishes focused on texture, some on flavor, and all served with gorgeous presentation both individually and collectively.  I have never seen so many courses served at once that were so harmonious in their presentation and flavor.  Unlike other coursed dinners, all the dishes of the kaiseki were served at once, allowing you to appreciate the aesthetic of the dishes together and the amount of work it must take to prepare such a meal.  Also, as I understand, serving them together allows the dishes to be enjoyed at their “optimal” temperatures.

There were at least seven or eight separate dishes.  The basashi was red and lean. I have seen horse on menus in Canada before but had never tried it until then.  It was soft, but not meltingly tender, its flavor not terribly different from that of raw steak.  I was not able to run any faster the next day either, so I probably won’t be eating it as a P.E.M. (performance enhancing meat). There was a whole fried rainbow trout that was quite tasty, a great little tempura course with sweet potato, shrimp, eggplant and something else I can’t remember.  One of my favorite items was the chawanmushi – a steamed egg custard.  This one contained two different types of mushrooms shitake and enoki, as well as herbs and some katsoubushi (that’s dried bonito if you haven’t been following all the Instagram posts). Slightly sweet and very smooth in texture, this was a highlight of the trip.

Also, a wonderful beef and mushroom sukiyaki was served, an individual hotpot for each of us with a soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine) broth to simmer the meat, mushrooms and tofu. The hot-pots or nabemono were not lit until we sat down for dinner.  We began eating the other dishes of the kaiseki as the nabemono came to a simmer and when Masako determined that the contents were appropriately cooked, we dipped each bite in raw egg prior shoving it in our faces as gracefully as possible.

Masako saying goodbye as we left Lafore Yamane Ryokan

Out on the streets in Nozawa, one can find lots of great snacks, like onsen tamago and steamed sweet potato. But, by far the most popular, were the oyaki. Oyaki are steamed dumplings filled with things such as pickled nozawana (a type of leafy green from the area), daikon, beef and red bean.  The dough is made from buckwheat, it’s pleasantly chewy and not too gritty.  All of the oyaki we tried were very tasty but our favorites were the nozawana and daikon because, as some know, we are both pickle junkies. Regardless of your filling preference, a steamy oyaki is a great après ski snack…

Shredding!

I won’t bore you too much about the skiing in Nozawa other than to say:

• it dumped snow so I didn’t have to worry about skiing on rocks
• lift tickets and rental equipment are much less expensive in Japan than the U.S.
• the snow that fell was light and fluffy just like it’s supposed to be in Japan
• most of the terrain is not that steep but that doesn’t matter much because the snow is so light
• some of the terrain is real steep
• very few Japanese skiers go in the trees
• there were lots of Australians
• Australians go in the trees
• Some of the trees got tracked out
• I still had a couple of the best runs of my life though I had to work for them 🙂

Myoko Kogen / Akakura Onsen

From Nozawa we took a train back to Nagano and transferred to another local train that took us to Myoko Kogen.  The whole trip was about 1.5 hours and cost $9.00.  This was a lot better than the bus that was advertised as the best option, which departed once daily, took about an hour and ten minutes, and cost $55.00.

Our lodging Akakura Onsen, was more basic and filled with a bunch of young, somewhat rowdy Australians.  Why anyone ever let them off their prison colony is beyond me. (They really were quite nice, just a lot louder than our place in Nozawa.)  Akakura is not as charming as Nozawa, but there are four major ski resorts within a 15-minute drive of town and the lack of relative charm equals fewer people on the slopes.  The owners of our pension in Akakura Koji and Miyori were extremely friendly and we had another delicious kaiseki prepared by Miyori.

Not quite as elaborate as the one in Nozawa, it was still very tasty and thoughtfully presented.  After dinner we sat in the dining room drinking box sake and chatting with them about skiing, food and Japan to the best of our collective abilities, plus occasional help from google translate.

We had what we both agreed was our only mediocre meal during our time in Japan on our first night in Akakura. It was a small restaurant full of Australian tourists and for the money the food was a bit lower quality than we had come to expect.  It wasn’t bad overall, just not as impressive as most of what we had been eating.

We skied one Friday at a resort called Suginohara or “Sugi” as the Aussies call it and it was just awesome.  No one on the mountain besides a few Australians, a few locals and probably a few Japanese tourists up early for the weekend. It snowed hard most of the day, without too much wind, and Jamie and I took laps through the terrain park and down groomers coated with fresh powder.  Not the steepest or deepest day I’ve had, but certainly one of the most enjoyable.