The Travel Bug: O little town of Yuzawa...

Yuzawa, Niigata is a great place to ski because its just under 2 hours from Tokyo, and has access to quite a large ski area over 6-7 ski resorts just a short car ride apart. This allows you to do a short side trip from your main holiday, or even just a day trip as many Japanese do.

Going during the "off-peak" season during "peak snow" (ie on weekdays after the New Year when Japanese throng the place, and before the Europeans arrive for their Easter holidays) was very lucky for us. The snow was fantastic, with not too crowded lifts.

We decided to stay at Echigo Yuzawa, which is just at the main Shinkansen station. The little town has basically 2 main streets, one on each side of the station, lined with little restaurants and ryokan hotels. (For a good guide to ryokans, do refer to http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/ which explains traditional Japanese guest accommodation.)

Our hotel Inamoto Ryokan was a short 5min walk from the station. Here's a sneak peek into what a Ryokan hotel looks like

Coffee & Seating area:



The coffee is ridiculously expensive at almost S$8 a cup, but at least it came with a cookie and a great view to look at while sipping it slowly.

Room (Day & Night):



It was a 12 tatami room not including the entry / toilet / bathroom area! We had the option of getting a room with a private outdoor bath, but... well... at almost double the cost, we decided we couldn't really afford it.

Onsen Entrance & Changing Area:



Here's the entrance to the onsen and an *exclusive* picture of what the changing area looks like. Managed to take this shot when peeking into the room and finding it totally empty. You place your clothes and towel in those baskets there, before going in to wash. On the other side of this room, there are sinks and all the necessary accessories for you (eg hair dryer, hair brush, cotton swabs, moisturiser etc). Normally the bath areas are combined into one large area, but this hotel had the outdoor bath on the 3rd floor while the other baths were on the ground floor. This meant that not many people went there, and it was almost private.