South Niigata · YuzawaNo.1241★★Open in map →

Echigo-Yuzawa Onsen

onsenOff the trail — and worth it

A hot-spring town in a snow valley, reached from Tokyo without changing trains. The spa street runs west from the station past inns and a free foot bath, and the town museum on it is built around Kawabata's Snow Country.

FromTokyo Station
from 66 minJoetsu Shinkansen, direct
Get off atEchigo-Yuzawa Station (Joetsu Shinkansen)
On foot
Echigo-Yuzawa Onsen

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is not a hidden valley. Skiers have arrived by train since the line was cut through the mountain, and the station is one of the busier stops on the route in winter. The trouble is that most of what people see of Yuzawa is the station building itself, where the sake hall and the bath are. The street outside and the bathhouses the town owns sit a few hundred metres past the door, and most trips never get that far.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Yukiguni-kan, Yuzawa Town History MuseumAbasaa / Public domain

Echigo-Yuzawa Station west exitWhere the spa street begins, with a free foot bath on the square
The spa streetInns and souvenir shops along the road heading west from the station
Kannakkuri foot bathFree, next door to the museum, shut for the winter months
Yukiguni-kanFourteen paintings of the novel, Kawabata's own possessions and his handwriting
The history floorA hoard of some 270,000 excavated coins, the second largest such find in Japan

How to actually get there

Tokyo Station → Joetsu Shinkansen, direct to Echigo-Yuzawa Station.
Echigo-Yuzawa Station → west exit, past the foot bath on the square.
Station square → west along the spa street to Yukiguni-kan.
Yukiguni-kan → on up the street toward the bathhouse at the source end.

From Tokyo by Joetsu Shinkansen: Trains run direct from Tokyo Station, 66 minutes at the fastest. The Shinkansen platforms sit above the conventional line inside the same building, so nothing about the arrival involves a walk between stations. The town starts at the west exit.
Back toward Tokyo: The same line returns south through the mountain. Yuzawa is a ski gateway, so winter traffic moves in one direction at a time and a reserved seat is worth more on the way home than on the way out. The station building has shops and a bath if a train has to be waited for.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The town lies along the floor of a valley, railway on one side, mountain closing the other. Out of the west exit the spa street bends away between inns and souvenir shops, with a free foot bath on the square, and keeps going until the buildings thin out. Yuzawa runs six public bathhouses, scattered from the old source at the head of the valley to the ones out by the ski grounds, so a stay here can be built out of baths instead of around a single hotel. Snow is the other constant. The pitch of the roofs, the covered walkways and the drains in the road are all shaped by it.

How to enjoy it

The museum opens at nine and closes at five, with the last entry at half past four. It shuts on Wednesdays, moving to the following day when a holiday lands on one, and stays open right through August. The free foot bath beside it is closed for the winter. Bathhouse hours differ from one to the next, so fix the museum first and hang the baths around it.

Background & history

The spring was here long before the platform was. The oldest of the public baths still stands at the head of the street, on the source side of the valley. What carried the town's name outward, though, was a novel. Kawabata Yasunari came to Yuzawa in 1934 and took a room on the upper floor of the inn at the top of the spa street, and Snow Country was written there. The room has been kept, the heroine's name is attached to one of the bathhouses, and the town's museum is arranged around the book.

Before you go

Cash: Entry to the museum was listed by the town and the prefecture at 500 yen for adults and 250 for children, with a lower rate for groups. The public bathhouses each set their own price.
Good to know: The museum closes on Wednesdays, shifting to the next day when a holiday falls on one, and does not close at all in August. The foot bath beside it is shut through the winter. Snow here is heavy enough that anything done on foot takes longer than the map suggests.
Another way: By road it is about five minutes from the Yuzawa interchange on the Kan-etsu Expressway, and the museum has free parking for ten cars and two coaches. From the Japan Sea side, Hokuetsu Express Hokuhoku Line trains also run through to the station.
After you get off: From the west exit the spa street runs away to the west. The museum is about seven minutes on foot, standing on the same street as the inns and the souvenir shops.