I went to Togari Onsen and enjoyed snowboarding in Feb 2021. This place is famous for both ski/snowboard spot and hot spring. In this post, I will write about the place for your reference and information.
Where is “Togari Onsen”?
Togari Onsen is in Iiyama city (northern part of Nagano prefecture (red circle)).
It may take 3~6 hours to get there from Tokyo.
Detailed map is as below (Google Maps).
How to get there? (from Tokyo)
In my case, I applied to a bus tour that includes bus ticket, hotel accommodation and ski lift ticket. There are mainly two ways to get to Togari onsen, so I will introduce them.
By train (about 3 hours)
This is the fastest, simple and expensive way to get to Togari Onsen.
It uses Shinkansen (bullet train), and may take about 3 hours from central Tokyo.
Here I will write how to get there from Tokyo station as an example.
① From Tokyo station
Please get on “Hokuriku Shinkansen” for Iiyama. You have to get a ticket before riding. In order to get the ticket, please visit the online site (following link) or go directly to a ticket office in a JR station.
● Japan Railway (official)
https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/
Regarding how to buy the ticket on the website, I may write on my later post.
② At Iiyama station
Change the train to a bus to “Togarionsen suki-jo (Togari Onsen Snow Resort)”
You can find the time table on the website below.
From the bus stop, you can easily go to the ski park and your hotel on foot. Enjoy!
By bus (about 6 hours) *tour
Unfortunately I could’t find website English available… If you can read Japanese or can use translation service like Google, you can book a low cost night-bus tour with hotel accommodation and lift ticket. If impossible, I’m afraid but I recommend you choose shinkansen and book hotel separately.
● Bus tour to Togari-Onsen ski park
https://skiski.jp/search_result.php
Entertainment
Snowboarding (Togari Onsen ski park)
Without saying, here is the main topic for this post. You can see the detail on the official website. As title says, this park is also Japan’s first snowbike park.
● Official website
https://togari.jp/winter/en/
● Data (Snow japan)
https://www.snowjapan.com/japan-ski-resorts/nagano/iiyama/togari-onsen
You can enjoy ski/snowboard with many courses. Actually this was my reason why I chose Togari this time. You can check course map of this ski park. Also, from the top, so beautiful scene can be seen!
Hot spring
Onsen means, as you may know, hot spring, and this indicates that hot spring is so famous in this area. There are so many ski/snowboard spots in Japan, however this can be a good reason why you choose and go to Togari.
You can go and relax in hot spring right after you enjoy skiing/snowboarding,
since there is a hot spring shop nearby ski park (600JPY, as of Feb 2021).
Also, many hotels in Togari has hot spring. You can enjoy hot spring whenever you want!
Food
With good nature, there are many kinds of great food in Togari and Nagano.
I will introduce some as below.
Miyuki Pork
Miyuki Pork is a special food in Togari. You can taste it with some ways of cooking.
You can find dishes with Miyuki pork in many restaurants in Togari.
Soba
Soba noodle, nowadays popular also abroad, is a special product in Nagano. You can eat in many restaurants in Togari. If you want to eat it, I recommend you go to “Ishidaya (石田屋一徹)”. You can eat a delicious noodle made from fresh buckwheat flour.
Then, you can enjoy not only soba, but also Miyuki pork, steak, tempura as well.
If you get interested, I’m afraid only Japanese but you can find the menu from the following link.
● Ishidaya
http://www.ishidaya.co.jp/soba
Souvenir
Popular souvenirs in Togari are mainly made from their good foods.
You can enjoy them at your home as well, and also give as a present.
Togarintou (snack)
Togarinto is a kind of coined word, connecting words “Togari” and “Karintou”.
Togari is, as you know, the name of this place. Then, karintou is one of the popular traditional snacks in Japan. Some ingredients including flour are flied, and melting sugar is added. You can try it with only 100JPY (as of Feb 2021).
Wine
As I mentioned earlier, grape is the special product in Nagano. That’s why Nagano is one of the most famous wine producing area in Japan, and its taste is highly evaluated not only in Japan but also in other countries. Also you can taste a variety of juice made from fresh fruits such as apple, grape, peach. Let’s try!
Soba
As I mentioned earlier, you can eat soba noodle in Togari. Also you can buy it as a souvenir. It’s well packed, so can easily be brought back to your home.
That’ it for this post. Thank you for reading it.
I hope you enjoy ski or snowboarding in Japan in the future.
Good day 🙂
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