D1 Nagano to Nozawaonsen

Route: Nagano to Nozawaonsen
Bicycle: 70 km
Train: 250 km
Average Speed: 14.5 km/h
Total ascent: 1050 m
Riding time: 4:30 h
Weather: Warm, sunny and just splendid, 20 C

Another long weekend, again good weather... actually quite warm for early November in Nagano... and off I went again to Nagano. A few weeks ago, I had organized several weekends away booking even double accomodations in two differents places where I want to ride, so I could cancel based on the weather. The other option for this weekend was Shizuoka... but Nagano in early November is definitely the place to be. 

I got up early in the morning... but it takes me quite some time to actually get started, so finally I didn't arrive to Nagano station until shortly after 10:00 and rolled out just before 10:30. There are different ways from Nagano to Nozawaonsen. Obviously the easiest would be a train... however that isn't the plan here. The second easiest would be just to follow the river to the foot of the ascent up to Nozawaonsen... boring... so instead I planned to visit yet again Nojiri lake but with the late start, lack of sleep, and the ascent that is needed to even get to the lake I got tired mid way through, so shortened the ride a little bit. Still came pretty close to the lake... but not to the lake itself. But road through really nice autumn colours in the countryside. 

I always knew that at the end there was a hill awaiting me... I just didn't realize how much of a hill it was. It seemed endless to my already tired body... and even when I reached this sign of Nozawa onsen, there wasn't actually yet any sign of the village itself. For that I needed to cycle a little bit further uphill until a higher lying valley came into view. 

But the lodge I had reserved wasn't in town... but rather in the ski area of Nozawa onsen. So it continued up and up for me. However once arrived, I was rewarded by this nice sunset over the Japanese alps in a light evening breeze: 

My hotel itself was called "Lodge Hahnenkamm" like the ski descent in Kitzbühel. An other hotel up there was called "Pension Schnee". Very Austrian everything. 

I was the only guest for the entire weekend and the hotel owners were extremly kind. They drove me down to the village (which in meters isn't very far, but a steep descent), where I went to the only onsen in town with a rotenburo... but that was a very nice onsen: Furusato no yu. I had a nice relaxing bath there. It has 2 pools inside. One called "lukewarm" at 41-42 C and one called "hot" at 43-45 C. And a rotenburo which seemed to be cooler than the lukewarm option. The hot option initially might seem to hot, but after a while was actually quite enjoyable. As long as you don't move around in the hot water. 

The city itself, being an onsen town is actually dotted with onsen, aparently all free of charge and the ones I saw all looking very nice... but none of them have a rotenburo... and if I can have a rotenburo that is definitely where I am headed. They looked nice though. Very traditional. 

After the bath I had dinner in town, then called again my hotel owner, who came down to the village to pick me up again.