Nozawa Onsen
Slope Breakdown
Nozawa Onsen at a glance
Nozawa Onsen is a ski resort in Japan, part of the Nozawa Onsen Snow Resort area. It offers 50 km of slopes served by 21 lifts, with skiing between 565 m and 1,650 m (1,085 m vertical). That makes it the 3rd largest of the 7 ski resorts in Japan listed on Intski. The season usually runs from December to April. Nozawa Onsen is particularly beginner-friendly: about 50% of its slopes are easy blue runs.
Top features of this resort
Snow forecast
Dry for the next 3 days, then about 23 cm at the top later in the week.
New snow and temperature at the top station. Estimated by Intski from the MET Norway forecast, updated every few hours. Where it snows most this week
Email me when it snows
An alert when 15 cm or more is on the way at Nozawa Onsen, and a heads-up before it opens.
Getting there & lift pass
Nearest airport
Matsumoto (MMJ) — about 96 km from the resort, straight-line distance, allow more by road.
Lift pass
Adult day pass around 7,800 JPY (2026/27 season). Nozawa Onsen day pass.
About €0.88 per km of piste the pass covers (50 km).
Compare lift pass prices at all resortsPrice source, checked 2026-09-14
Nozawa Onsen resort facts
Difficulty shares from skiresort.info, applied to the area total.
About Nozawa Onsen
Nozawa Onsen Snow Resort is a ski area in the village of Nozawaonsen in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The name is the first clue to the place: onsen is the Japanese word for a hot spring, and the village carries it as part of its own name, a fair hint…
Resort Highlights
A ski resort with a hot-spring village name
Nozawa Onsen Snow Resort is a ski area in the village of Nozawaonsen in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The name is the first clue to the place: onsen is the Japanese word for a hot spring, and the village carries it as part of its own name, a fair hint that the springs define the place as much as the skiing does. The site tags the resort for traditional character and scenic views, and not for après-ski or modern lifts, which sketches a resort whose identity rests on the village rather than on its infrastructure.
The skiing
The resort offers 50 km of pistes served by 21 lifts, a mid-sized area with a healthy lift ratio of about 2.4 km of piste per lift. The vertical is the notable figure. The base is at 565 m and the top lift reaches 1,650 m, a drop of 1,085 m, a respectable figure for an area of this size. The top station is well below the altitudes at which thin air does the work for snow, and the site does not tag Nozawa Onsen as snow-sure; as at other Japanese resorts, the numbers should be read against the local climate rather than against Alpine expectations. The difficulty split is not recorded in our data.
A thousand metres of vertical on 50 km of piste implies long runs rather than many short ones, and with 21 lifts the links between them should be straightforward. Skiers who prefer sustained descents to lift-hopping will find the shape of the area suits them, and the December to April season is long enough to make a mid-winter trip the safe choice.
Village
The traditional-character tag is the resort’s main distinction. Nozawaonsen is a village first and a resort second, and the scenic-views tag reflects the Nagano mountain setting around it. Anyone expecting a purpose-built base with a lively bar strip should look at the tags again: the site records neither. What it does record is a village whose name promises hot water at the end of a cold day. For a quiet week built around long runs and a real village, the numbers and the tags line up neatly.
Practical
Matsumoto is the nearest airport in our data, roughly 96 km away as the crow flies. The season runs from December to April. The resort’s official website is the reference for lift passes, opening dates and snow conditions.
Frequently asked questions about Nozawa Onsen
Onsen is the Japanese word for a hot spring. The resort is in the village of Nozawaonsen in Nagano Prefecture, which carries the word in its own name.
The lifts run from 565 m to 1,650 m, a vertical of 1,085 m, which favours long descents over short runs.
The site tags it for traditional character and scenic views, and Wikipedia locates the ski area in the village of Nozawaonsen. It is not tagged for après-ski or modern lifts.
Twenty-one lifts serve 50 km of pistes, about one lift for every 2.4 km.
Nozawa Onsen has 50 km of marked slopes: 25 km easy (blue), 15 km intermediate (red), 10 km expert (black), served by 21 ski lifts.
The skiing in Nozawa Onsen ranges from 565 m at the base to 1,650 m at the top — a vertical drop of 1,085 m.
The ski season in Nozawa Onsen typically runs from December to April. Exact opening dates vary by year and snow conditions.
Yes — Nozawa Onsen is well suited to beginners. About 50% of the slopes (25 km) are easy blue runs.
Nozawa Onsen has 10 km of expert (black) slopes — about 20% of the total.
An adult day pass in Nozawa Onsen costs around 7,800 JPY (2026/27 season). Nozawa Onsen day pass.
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