Tengu & Honzawa Onsen (Yatsugatake)

Tee
Apr 24, 2023
2 min read

Updated: Sep 24

Tengudake 2640m from Honzawa Onsen is a relatively easy winter hike. The ridge to the peak has a steep and exposed section, and the weather is notoriously bad in the Yatsugatake mountains, but overall, this is a good hike to practice your crampons and axe skills. Honzawa is also famous for being Japan's highest outdoor onsen, and especially in winter, it's amazing to have a bath surrounded by snow. The hut is open year-round.

	
⏲︎	Time: 9-10h
✎	Kanji: 天狗岳
⚲ 	Location: Nagano
↔	Distance: 17km
✮	Difficulty: Intermediate
ᨒ	Elevation Gain: 1300m
☀	Overnight
☉	Snow: mid October 
	to end of June

Access

Car

Park at the small free parking lot right at the trailhead. If its full, continue down the road to Inagoyu Hotspring, which will have more parking (Pay inside; it was a couple 100¥). There is a trail through the forest to go up, so you don't have to walk along the road (~15min walk)

Public Transportation

You can take the bus from Koumi Station to Inagoyu Hospring bus stop.

Trail description

Day 1: 2:50h

From the trailhead, it takes around 1:30h to Shirabisogoya through the forest. There is a little pond, and it's normally open in winter for snacks and has a toilet. Then it's another 1:20h to Honzawa onsen. Depending on the weather, you can continue on to Tengudake and then stay the night or go up the next day. The weather in the Yatsugatake mountain range is often bad, and it's rare to have a sunny and not windy/cloudy/rainy day. Keep you schedule flexible and decide based on which day looks better.

Day 2: 6h

Next day head up to Tengudake. Roundtrip, it should take you about 4:30h. If you check the map below, there are two options from the hut. Take the left one. The right trail is shorter, but it's usually closed in winter because of avalanche risk.

On your way back, you can do one last stop at the onsen and then head back.

For the outdoor onsen it's okay to use a swimsuit. Depending on the amount of people you will likely share the bath with others, some might be naked.

Or use the indoor bath, which has different opening times dependig on the gender.