We found the ultimate Japanese tourist destination where we could combine our love of skiing with our desire to absorb ourselves up to our eyeballs in Japanese culture. Many Japanese city folk also visit Shibu Onsen as tourists and to rejuvenate, so we knew we were onto a good thing!

We initially visited Shibu Onsen as a day trip when we were staying in Yudanaka, and we loved it so much that a week or so later we returned and stayed in a ryokan in Shibu Onsen.

We had a car so it was easy to use Shibu as a base to visit nearby ski resorts. We can’t recommend this beautiful village enough!
See our video here