Nozawa Onsen野沢温泉スキー場

Nozawa Onsen is one of those rare places where the skiing and the hot springs are inseparable. Long before the first ropeway there was a hot-spring village here — and it still feels like one. Thirteen free public soto-yu bathhouses sit among the lanes, heated by the same volcanic water that steams up through the town, cared for by the locals who live around them and open from dawn. You ski all day, then soak in the water that made the village.

The mountain above is bigger than most visitors expect — 44 runs over 50 km on 1,085 m of vertical, from wide beginner boulevards to the tight, birch-lined tree runs the regulars keep quiet about. Snow rolls in off the Sea of Japan light and deep, and because the village faces away from the crowds, the powder tends to last. Uenotaira and Yamabiko up top are the tree-run names to learn.

Off the slopes, Nozawa rewards wandering. Steam drifts from street corners, nozawana greens are pickled in the roadside baths, and every January one of the three great fire festivals of Japan lights the Dōsojin here. It isn't the cheapest or flashiest resort in Nagano, and that's the point — it trades polish for something older and warmer. Come for the snow, stay for the bath.