Japan: February 2026: Day 3: Nagano Snow Shuttle

Japan

Feb 2026: Day 3: Arrival

Chicken for pre-arrival meal.

Chicken and .... spinach?

Fish cake, cucumber, tamago, shrimp, etc.

JA876A operating as NH 5, 10:44 flight time (actual), 5,676 miles (IFE), 5,578 miles (Flightaware), 5,445 miles (great circle).

Arrived an hour before scheduled 5am arrival.... it's too damned early.

Took bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3, now time for a nap.

Yoshinoya at Terminal 3.

View from food court.

Yoshinoya in Japan just hits different.

Nagano Snow Shuttle.

Bus is a 7-speed manual. Way cool.

Seats are okay.

~80 minutes later, now at Yokokawa Service Area (aka rest stop).

Food stalls.

Shopping.

Indoor food stalls, part of a good-sized food court.

Egg waffle time.

Yokokawa Service Area map.

Not all the sinks have hot water.

Break time almost over.

Oyaki Farm is next stop, ~1 hour later.

Nagano Snow Shuttle guests get free oyakis.

Kind of like a bao, but deep fried for 2 minutes before steaming.

This one is filled with mushrooms. Pretty good.

Smaller buses from Oyaki Farm onward, as the local towns have narrow roads.

View from the rooftop deck of Oyaki Farm.

Inside Oyaki Farm. Production area sadly does not allow photos.

Inside the smaller bus for actual drop-off.

Western room at the ryokan, Yudanaka Yumoto.

View. So pretty.

The street in front of the ryokan.

Yudanaka Yumoto is a massive building, not sure why they offer so few rooms (need more renovations, they said).

Lobby area.

Entrance to dining room.

Hallways are cold. Lots of old single-pane glass.

Mini-patio/smoking area/passage to the onsen.

Yudanaka Yumoto's private onsen.

No showers in room, shower in the onsen.

Outdoor area of onsen. Sinks.

Sinks.

Chris' hot pot at Goen.

Mushroom salad.

Chirashi was not bad.

Japan Powder Culture Tours took over most of the patio.

With day 2 of the trip lost due to the vagaries of the international date line (as well as my sleeping through it), ANA flight 105 arrived over an hour early to Tokyo Haneda. The lights were turned on more than 2 hours before landing (wtf?) for meal service, and since the lights were on, I figured I might as well eat, even tho it was closer to 2:00am than any civilized hour. The actual arrival was just before 4:30am, which was all that more miserable than the scheduled 5:30am.

At least with such an early arrival, taking the shuttle bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3, then finding a bench to sleep on was not too arduous a task, and a not-so-restful series of cat naps commenced until the Nagano Snow Shuttle check-in desk opened. Dropped off my ski bag with them, then had just enough time to run upstairs to the Yoshinoya at the food court for a quick meal before having to collect my bags and head to the Nagano Snow Shuttle bus.

The bus ride is quite convenient, comfortable enough for three hours (although not luxurious), and Japanese rest stops are pretty awesome, larger and nicer than their equivalents in most other places. The second stop was Oyaki Farm, at the outskirts of Nagano, where some (including myself) boarded far smaller buses for the last 30 minutes or so to the hotel/hotel drop-off areas. Here the experience broke down a bit, the drop-off zone for myself and one other passenger was a roadside rest stop again, and arranging final pick-up was quite unclear. My hotel wasn't on WhatsApp and I couldn't call for some reason, but fortunately Japan Powder Culture Tours was able to send a bus to grab us.

Yudanaka Yumoto is one of the oldest ryokan in the area, more than 350 years old, and it shows. The building itself is massive given how few rooms it offers (maybe due to the need to renovate the other rooms?), the tree-lined area behind is beautiful, and the private onsen, complete with outdoor pool, is quite the mix of both rather dated and yet incredibly scenic. The owners are extremely hospitable, and the overall experience is lovely, so long as you are okay with the quirks of staying in such a historic building.

Evening activities got into full swing as Japan Powder Culture Tours picked all the new arrivals for the day up, did a quick briefing, and then we all ended up at dinner at Goen, one of the local restaurants that has a good relationship with JPTC. About the only mix-up in what was otherwise a very friendly, very casual evening was the food ordering, but in the end everyone had a good laugh, and the chirashi was quite good. Also in evidence was the local love of mushrooms in cooking, something that would become much more apparent as the trip progressed.