ZAO ONSEN | Japan's best hidden ski resort?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- Today we’re skiing with Snow Monsters in a traditional Japanese hot spring town- Zao Onsen in Yamagata!
The traditional hot spring town of Zao Onsen, is one of northern Japan’s hidden gems. Home to the world famous snow monsters, and one of the largest ski resorts in Japan you must add Zao Onsen in Yamagata to your future Japan itinerary! It’s the perfect Japan winter destination, nestled deep in the idyllic Japanese countryside where you can get a feel of the traditional Japanese bathhouses (seriously straight out of a Ghibli film!) and enjoy skiing and snowboarding on the famous Japow!
Today we’ll show you our time in Zao, packed with skiing, snowboarding and seeing the famous Snow Monsters! We also explore the hot spring town, relax in the onsens and give you a tour of our traditional Japanese ryokan room and dinner! We hope you enjoy the video!
Zao Onsen is known as the “Springs of Beauty”, and is famous across Japan as being one of the oldest and most acidic hot springs. The springs have a PH of nearly 1, making them uniquely acidic. It’s history dates back 110AD when an injured warrior discovered the waters, and supposedly healed after bathing in it. The town is home to many public onsen or bathhouses, which are super cheap at only ¥200! There are also a huge number of day use onsens, often with large outdoor baths- and most hotels and ryokans in the area have private onsens also!
Zao is home to the Snow Monsters, a natural phenomenon that transforms fir trees into towering snowy shapes. The Zao Snow Monster area can be reached via ropeway, and is the beginning of a 10km ski run down to the town below. If you don’t wish to ski or snowboard, there is a viewing area for the snow monsters and make sure to visit during one of the special illumination events! It’s also possible to snowshoe in the snow monster field or ride on a piste basher and experience it that way!
Planning a trip to Japan? The best way to see all of this amazing country is to use the Shinkansen (bullet train). Get UNLIMITED travel on almost all JR Trains, including the Shinkansen, with the JR PASS: click.jrpass.com/aff_c?offer_...
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that we provide we may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting We Go East, we love making videos for you and want to continue doing so!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Zao Onsen Town - 蔵王温泉
01:46 Snow Monsters - 樹氷
03:39 Skiing in Zao - スキー
05:10 Night Skiing - 夜のスキー
06:54 Hot Springs in Zao Onsen - 温泉
08:58 Ryokan hotel room - 良寛
11:28 Ryokan Dinner - 晩ご飯
12:20 Yamagata & Outro
#japan #lifeinjapan #hotsprings
WHO WE BE:
Hi we’re Theo and Ashley, a British couple who decided to pack up and move to Japan 🇯🇵 We spent a year living in the countryside of the northern prefecture of Hokkaido before moving to Kobe City! We’re documenting our time in Japan by making videos about things we find interesting, without being too serious.
SOCIALS:
Instagram: / wegoeast1
Pinterest: / wegoeast
MUSIC: (In order of appearance)
dizzy by Joakim Karud / joakimkarud
Music promoted by Audio Library • Dizzy - Joakim Karud (...
Free Range by Mona Wonderlick / monawonderlick
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported - CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/-free-range
Music promoted by Audio Library • Free Range - Mona Wond...
Clouds by Joakim Karud / joakimkarud
Music promoted by Audio Library • Clouds - Joakim Karud ...
Wild Flower by Joakim Karud / joakimkarud
Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported- CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_wild-flower
Music promoted by Audio Library • Wild Flower - Joakim K...
Be Mine - Amine Maxwell [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus
Watch: • Be Mine - Amine Maxwel...
Free Download / Stream: alplus.io/be-mine]
Mitsubachi by Smith The Mister smiththemister.bandcamp.com
Smith The Mister bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/mitsubachi
Music promoted by Audio Library • Mitsubachi - Smith The...
Cruising by Vendredi / vendrediduo
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported - CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_cruising
Music promoted by Audio Library • Cruising - Vendredi (N...
Riviera by Smith The Mister smiththemister.bandcamp.com
Smith The Mister bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/al-riviera
Music promoted by Audio Library • Riviera - Smith The Mi...
![[ LIVE ] Rank เล่นแต่แครี่ ยาวๆถึง 100ดาว “วันนี้มีกิจกรรมลุ้นรับสกินมาบอกต่อ โก๋แก่ช็อกโกบอล x ROV”](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5NNgkhWj57Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Great mountain scenery and snowy landscape. I liked also parts showing the night skiing and Zao Onsen.
Thank you very much for coming to Zao Onsen in Yamagata City and thank you very much for taking the nice video of the beautiful scenery and delicious food. Compared to those days, immigration to Japan has become much easier, so please come to Yamagata City again.
Wow beautiful !
Good trip your Thanks Zao&You
a nice video!
私も蔵王大好きで毎年スノーボード行ってます
Excellent skiing video,natural beautiful snow monster very useful detailed information, thanks for sharing, excellent photography congratulations to both of you 👌👌👌
Thank you! Have you ever visited Zao?
Thank you for sharing and welcome back to the internets.
Thank you for the comment! We've taking a little break over the winter but we're back now with a lot more planned!
Finally a new video, been looking forward to it🥳
Sorry you've had to wait so long, we took a break over the winter, but we're back with loads more videos planned!
You are good skiers.
Even though you hold a camera in one hand, your skiing style is excellent.
Thank you for the kind comment! We both love to ski!
Absolutely stunning!!!!
thank you! This was a fun one to make!
Wowsers stunnerooney
Thank you!
Zao looking beaut
👀
It's also my favorite ski resort. This is the northern limit of frost-covered trees in Japan.
Absolute banger of a video. Great job guys! We’re going snowboarding tomorrow and there’s no way we’re gonna make it as cool as you guys did. 🤣
Thank you guys! Where are you going to snowboard?
@@wegoeast Just northern Okayama!
Awesome, thanks for sharing 🙏
Great video! Brilliant
Wow amazing...
樹氷のハゲモノ😮
オーストラリア人ばかりの
ニセコにも行って欲しいです♪
ニセコはオーストラリア人が多いですよね！2019年ニセコに行きてめっちゃ楽しかったですよ。⛷️
Awesome video action both of you! Appreciated the historical references, which made it very educational. Do you share this type of video with your Japanese students? I believe it would be great if you did this since it would be a superb way to teach cross-curricula lessons.
Thanks for sharing!
Here for the content
here for the comments
So excited to go here! Any more straggler videos in the making? 👀
Let us know when you do and we can give you all the recommendations! And yes we have some up our sleeves haha keep your eyes peeled
Thanks for the great info, may I know what month when you made this video?
Thank you! We made this video in the first half of January, at the time
Hi, do you have any recommendation for rentals of ski gears near Zao? Was looking to stay in yamagata and head to Mount Zao for day time ski/snowboard. Thanks!!!! We will be heading to Yamagata City Sendai, could you share whats the express bus from Sendai to Yamagata too?
We rented from Best Pro Rental Shop almost directly opposite the Zao Sky Cable gondola bottom station. Can highly recommend them, and they're only a short walk from the bus terminal. The bus to Yamagata from Sendai is VERY confusing to find (blame Sendai's impossible to navigate bus terminal), so I would recommend getting the train to yamagata Station. There is a direct sendai to zao route but it runs infrequently
heya! can you please let me know the name of the ryokan that you were staying at?
It's callee Meitoya Sou (but Takamiya Ryokan Sou on Booking dot com). It really was brilliant and we can't recommend it more!
Is the downhill track beginner friendly?
Yes, there are lots of beginner friendly slopes, but the weather is often foggy with poor visibility which makes it a bit more difficult
Do Japanese ski resorts have apres ski?
Not in the European sense! A couple of beers and light bites in a local Izakaya (Japanese pub type place) is about all you'll find outside the big resorts - Niseko or Hakuba
Hi, my family is planning a ski trip to JP in December 23, 2025 - January 2, 2026. Do you think the snow at ZAO will be good enough to start the season? I know it’s hard to predict, just like to get some idea in general. thank you
As you said it's difficult to predict, but I would be fairly confident that the snow would be more than good enough for skiing on piste. The snow monsters may not look their best due to it being relatively early season, but the skiing should be fine!
What's the name of this Ryokan?? 😍
It's called the Meitoya Sou (but if you book through booking dot com like we did, it's called Takamiya Ryokan Sou) - I cant recommend it more! 5 min walk to the slopes, great onsen, great food!
Is the skiing there still good in early march?
Powder days in March are few and far between, but you'll be able to ski most of the resort In my opinion
@@wegoeast Really appreciate the response. Thank you.
is going on early january good?
So we went around January 12th and the snow was great for skiing, and the snow monsters were as you see in the video. Prime snow monster viewing is in Feb, but i would highly recommend going in January! 😄
Thanks!@@wegoeast
Which Ryokan is this, any contact details ?
Thanks
We stayed at the wonderful Meitoya Sou (which confusingly is called Takamiya Ryokan Sou on Booking dot com). I cannot recommend it enough, everything was excellent during our stay and its only a few minutes walk to the ski slopes in winter
Thanks