Lodge Nagano was fantastic! Warm breakfasts cooked every day, pleasant guests, and access to all town Onsens. They also offer daily activities, so when the snow wasn't great we only rode a half-day and went on a tour to see the snow monkeys that afternoon. The staff are really cool people and easy to talk to, along with the guests, lots of international travelers. The town has lots of good souvenir shops and great restaurants. There are also a few bars, even a karaoke bar that was quite lively.

We visited late March, I would definitely like to return one year, but definitely earlier in the season, when there is much better snow cover and frequent powder days. However, there is plenty of terrain on the mountain and lots of great trails.

After a day of skiing, the lodge has a nice warm fireplace in front of some couches and a TV to lounge in, perfect! Also, free tea and coffee. I look forward to booking my next stay at Lodge Nagano.
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Super friendly and helpful staff, great location, only two minute walk from the lifts. Highly recommended.
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I stayed a week in Nozawa at Lodge Nagano after touring around Japan and staying at different places.

Super cheap, but that doesn't mean you don't get great value. Really cool vibe with friendly staff who go out of their way to help.

The best value by far I got in Japan and the skiing was probably the best too. Amazing powder days.

Thanks to Luke and the guys and girls in the Lodge.
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This is a lodge for Westerners. Whilst Lodge Nagano provides a little flavor of Japan it’s largely very Westernised, yet there is more than enough Japanese culture outside the front door for cultural immersion. The lodge is like a solace where you can retreat at the end of the day in the knowledge that you can speak English to your heart’s content.

The communal areas at the lodge are very conducive to socializing, and as everyone is very friendly, it’s a great place to meet people.

The rooms are comfortable and it’s not really an inconvenience to have shared bathrooms. It seems criminal to have a shower at the lodge when there are so many onsens to sample.

The hosts are really friendly and will make sure you get the most out of your Nozawa Onsen holiday.
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Lodge Nagano is a great place to stay particularly if you are on a budget and you want to have the comfort of being around multi-lingual hosts who can speak English and Japanese.

Luke the lodge manager has spent several years in Nozawa Onsen and is very knowlegable about the village and where the best places are to ski and board. If you need to order a taxi or book a restaurant, Luke speaks fluent Japanese so that makes life so easy.

We stayed in a bunk room which we had between the two of us. The room was cosy and catered well for our luggage. It could be a bit of a squeeze with 4 to a room however if you are on a tight budget then that would be a small sacrifice to pay. The other advantage was that we had wireless internet access from our room (although I believe the next level above struggles to get a signal).

I am always a bit dubious about shared facilities and having to walk around bumping into walls at night, however the lodge had a good number of seperate mens and womens facilities on each floor, and no matter where your room was it was only a couple of paces to the loo.

In terms of facilities, Lodge Nagano had a cosy lounge with flat screen TV and DVD Player. This is a great place to get away from everyone if you just want to chill out. There is a lovely communal eating area which is also the social hub of the lodge.

The daily breakfast is pretty much a western breakfast with cereals and toast however you also get the options of some Japanese dishes such as rice and eggs cooked in the onsen.

We only got to spend a couple of days / nights here however we could have easily settled in for a week and been very happy.
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