What YouCan't Miss in the Snow
Six experiences travellers agree are worth the journey — from a snow festival that draws millions to monkeys that bathe in hot springs like people. Each has its own timing, so plan to the right month and your trip pays off.
Sapporo's biggest winter event, drawing more than 2 million people a year. The highlight is the row of giant snow and ice sculptures running the length of Odori Park for about 1.5 km, lit up at night for a different look entirely. There's an ice-carving zone at Susukino and a family snow-play zone at Tsudome.
Sapporo Guide →
🕯️ Otaru · Hokkaido2
If the Sapporo Snow Festival is the big spectacle, Otaru is the smaller, warmer one. The whole town lights candles in little snow lanterns along the old canal and snowy lanes, the flames reflecting off the water and soft snow — so romantic people say it's even prettier than the photos. It runs at the same time as the Sapporo festival, so you can do both on one trip.
Hokkaido Guide →
🐒 Nagano · Chubu3
The image of a troop of red-faced monkeys sitting eyes-closed in a hot spring surrounded by snow is the symbol of a Japanese winter — and the only place on Earth you can see it. These wild monkeys come down to soak in the onsen on their own to beat the cold. It's a bit of a walk through the snowy forest to reach the pool, but seeing it with your own eyes is more than worth it.
Nagano Guide →A World Heritage village of centuries-old "gassho" (praying-hands) thatched-roof houses. When thick snow blankets the roofs and the lights come on at dusk, the whole valley becomes a fairy-tale scene people chase all year. The light-up runs only a handful of nights a year and demand is fierce, which makes it the most special and hardest-to-catch window of all.
Gifu Guide →
♨️ Yamagata · Tohoku5
A hot-spring town that looks like it stepped out of an anime — three- and four-storey wooden ryokan from the Taisho era (the 1920s) line both banks of a stream, and as evening falls the gas lamps flicker on one by one against the gently falling snow. People who've been say it feels like walking into a dream — widely called the most beautiful onsen town in winter.
Yamagata Guide →Japan's powder snow is so light and dry that skiers fly in from all over the world to chase it. The standout is Niseko in Hokkaido (12–15 metres of snow per season, with English-language ski schools — great for first-time foreign visitors), Hakuba in Nagano (just 2–3 hours from Tokyo, with both steep runs and beginner zones), and Nozawa Onsen, where you can finish a day on the slopes and soak in the old hot-spring village.
Nagano Guide →