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The village is located at the foot of
Kenashi-yama (literally Mt No-hair), alt 1650 meters, in
beautiful natural surroundings - lush green in spring
and summer, colored leaves in autumn and of course
spectacular snow covered surroundings in winter.
Nozawa Onsen strives to maintain a traditional
atmosphere. Out of the winter season the village
is quiet, but as the snow arrives so do skiers and
snowboarders and the energy levels suddenly increase as
people come to enjoy the mountain.
Skiing was introduced to Japan in 1911
by Austrian Major Theodor von Lerch and came to Nozawa
the following year, although the ski hill was not
established until 1924. It was in 1930 that one of
the founders of alpine skiing, Hannes Schneider from
Austria, taught the techniques of Arlberg skiing in
Nozawa Onsen. This brought about a sudden rise in
the enthusiasm of skiing in Nozawa Onsen. Since
then, Nozawa Onsen has always been at the top of the
Japanese skiing scene, and more recently
snowboarding. It was the first place in the
country to install ski lifts and also holds numerous
major skiing and snowboarding tournaments. It was
also the host for the Biathalon competitions at the
Nagano Olympics.
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No visit to Nozawa Onsen would be
complete without taking a hot spring bath. After
all, the Onsen in Nozawa Onsen is the Japanese word for
hot springs. Many ryokan and a few minshuku have
their own hot spring bathing facilities. Anyone
can enjoy, free of charge, any of the thirteen public
hot spring baths known as sotoyu. They all have a
different source with distinct characteristics that
provide for a variety of different mineral
baths.
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