【4K Japan Walk】Nozawa Onsen – Snowy retro townscape and impressive traditional fire festival

【4K Japan Walk】Nozawa Onsen – Snowy retro townscape and impressive traditional fire festival

Hello everyone!
Thank you for always watching our videos. This time’s walk area is Nozawa Onsen in Nagano Prefecture. To get to Nozawa Onsen, take the Shinkansen from Tokyo for about 1 hour and 40 minutes to Iiyama Station, then take a bus for about 30 minutes. I arrived at Nozawa Onsen Central Terminal.
I would like to start walking from here. Nozawa Onsen is located in the northern part of Nagano Prefecture and is known as one of the heaviest snowfall areas in Japan. Nozawa Onsen has been known to exist since 1272 during the Kamakura period, and has flourished as a hot spring resort since ancient times. The hot spring town of the village is lined with guest houses, hotels, and souvenir shops, and you can enjoy the retro atmosphere of the townscape. The traditional fire festival held in this village on January 15th every year is very impressive and attracts many tourists. This time I would like to take a walk around the village during the day and see the fire festival at night. I would be happy if you could enjoy this walk with me as well. If you only want to watch the video of the fire festival, please skip the video until 01:11:24. There are 13 public baths in the village that use 100% natural fresh hot spring water. Managed by local villagers, these bathhouses are always clean and open to everyone, including villagers and tourists. This is one of the hot spring sources. Because the water temperature is close to 90 degrees, villagers still boil vegetables and eggs here. This building is “Oyu”, the symbolic public bathhouse of this hot spring town.　 Each bathhouse is decorated with a Buddha statue as a guardian Buddha. I would like to head to the ski resort now. Use this walking path to get to the ski resort. Although it is a very long walk, you will arrive at the ski resort in about 5 minutes. Nozawa Onsen Village was used as one of the stadiums for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. The quality snow ski resort in Nozawa Onsen Village is popular with many tourists who enjoy winter sports. The ”Dosojin” Fire Festival is one of the three most famous fire festival in Japan. It is held on January 15th every year to pray for a plentiful harvest, health and good fortune in the coming year. The festival date back to 1863 and though the location has changed, the festival remain the same. The main attraction is the battle between guards and torch bearing villagers as they attempt to set the beech wood shrine on fire. Decorative lantern poles are also set to flame in an offering to the Gods for the health and prosperity of the first born son of some families in the village. A team of 25-year-old men, who are having a “Yakudoshi” this year, protect a beechwood shrine from villagers’ torchlight attacks, while a team of 42-year-old men, who are also in a “Yakudoshi,” are sitting on the roof of the shrine. Yakudoshi, which literally means “unlucky age,” refers to particular ages when a number of disasters are believed to strike. This is a decorative lantern stick that is used to pray for the health and prosperity of a family’s eldest son, who was born last year. The main event battle begins with the fire of the representative of Nozawa-gumi, the organizer of the festival. The village children’s torch attack begins. The children’s attack lasts about 30 minutes. From here, the attack by the village adults begins. The attack becomes more intense, and the onlookers cheer. This adult attack lasts about an hour or so. This seems to be the final attack. After a fierce battle, both sides tighten their hands and set fire to the shrine building. Decorative lanterns are also burned together. Thank you for watching till the end! See you again in the next video👋

00:00:00 Opening
00:00:31 Iiyama Station
00:01:12 Nozawa Onsen Central Terminal
00:04:44 One of the 13 public bathhouses in the village
00:06:36 A narrow slope lined with private houses
00:12:02 Bubbling spring that is a natural monument
00:20:24 The symbolic public bathhouse of the village
00:23:38 Yuzawa Shrine covered in snow
00:28:48 Cityscape of Nozawa Onsen Village
00:29:09 Yu Road A moving walkway leading to the ski resort
00:31:36 Yuzawa Onsen Ski Resort
00:36:31 Head back to Yu Road to return to the hot spring village
00:40:57 Walk through the retro-style shopping district
00:43:23 Area lined with guesthouses and private houses
00:53:47 Nishinomiya Shrine and public bathhouse
00:55:22 Walk along the main street to the fire festival venue
01:07:57 Statue of the god of fire festival
01:09:55 Fire festival venue
01:11:24 Fire festival venue at Night
01:12:28 Villagers with big torches
01:13:20 Put up a large lantern decoration
01:13:50 Fireworks heralding the beginning of the fireworks festival
01:14:16 Taiko drum performance at the beginning of the fire festival
01:14:50 The fire was lit by the representative of the Nozawa-gumi, the organizer of the festival
01:16:25 Many people watching the fire festival
01:16:41 Torch attack by village children
01:17:30 Torch attacks by village adults intensify
01:31:11 After the torch battle is over, the festival shrine building is lit.
01:32:39 The festival shrine building in flames
01:33:20 Decorative lanterns are burned
01:33:50 The festival shrine building is completely ablaze.
01:34:17 The festival shrine building engulfed in flames and the crowd watching

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Filmed: January 15th, 2025
Weather: Snowy
Temperature: -2℃ / 28.4℉

#japan #japantravel #scenery #walkaround #walking #cityscape #snowscape