The Nozawa Onsen Stamp Trail is a simple but really lovely way to explore the town and learn some local history. There are 27 stamp locations and plaques spread across bathhouses (onsen), temples, shrines and landmarks, and finding them gives you a genuine feel for the place. It’s important to note if you’re doing it in snow season some places are not safe to get to…and you shouldn’t try. This was the nozawa song memorial and to get to it I would have had to wade through waist deep snow on a little walkway over a 90C hot spring. That’s a nope.
I picked up a stamp book from the tourist information centre on day 1 for about 500Y ($5 AUD) and spent a few days meandering through the village, stopping to take rubbings using the little wooden pestles at each site.
The rubbing process is simple and oddly satisfying. At each stamp point, I matched the page number in my book to the plaque, laid the two sheets provided (one green, one white) directly over the surface, and used the small wooden pestle attached to the stand to gently rub over the paper. Slowly, the design appeared through the paper, creating a clear impression of each site. It’s usually easy to do and doesn’t take long although can be a pain if it’s actively snowing.
If you collect more than 10 stamps, you’re rewarded with a Nozawa Onsen “yu” towel (which I believe is hot water), designed by artist Taro Okamoto, which makes a great keepsake. If you get to 20 you can choose from the towel and another prize (tea towel with all 13 public Onsen stamp images) pictured below:
**and as an extra bonus if you get to 14 and then go find the hidden, secret corona one at the Hikage Gondala you get bonus corona sponsored prizes in 2026! High 5 to B who took my booklet up the mountain and got me these lol.
The booklet is also a perfect excuse to duck into small cafés, street food, onsens, souvenir shopsand craft stores along the way. It was how I managed to find the local super market and delicious steamed buns while stamp hunting.
With an easily walkable town like Nozawa Onsen, it’s definitely been one of my favourite ways to get to know this place as a non skier, It helped that B made me a Google map layer which had about 20 of them on it – easier to navigate than the town map for sure. If only less of them had been buried under the snow!
P.S. Here’s my list of the different stamp locations I found in Nozawa Onsen in Jan 2026….and the ones I absolutely had no hope getting to as they were buried in metres of snow and it was unsafe.
- Oyu onsen ✅
- Takinoyu onsen g2 up behind the springs ✅
- Asagama no Yu onsen✅
- Shinyu onsen d2 ✅
- Kamiterayu onsen c3 ✅
- Kuma no Teraiyu onsen (mildest public bath temp apparently) c3 ✅
- Yokochi no Yu onsen ✅
- Kawaharayu ✅
- Shinden no Yu onsen ✅
- Nakao no Yu onsen c9 ✅
- Akiha no Yu onsen ✅
- Matsuba no Yu onsen✅
- Juodou no Yu onsen✅
- Onsen Yakushido nyorai hall F3 ✅
- Yakuzan Kenmei-ji Temple G4 – off limits in winter 🚩
- Yuzawa Jinja Shrine G4 – off limits in winter 🚩
- Ogama cooking spring. F2 – can’t find, may be off limits in winter under roadside snow? 🚩
- “Oborotsukiya” monument at the Furusato-no-Yu entrance. F2 ✅
- Monument of the origin of Nozawa-na at Kenmei-ji Temple (birthplace stele) G4 – also likely to be under the snow 🚩
- Akebi Tsuru Zaiku and hatiguruma stele g4 ?? Different naming online vs on here but also in the snow area 🚩
- Dosojin Festival monument in front of Minshuku Yuzawa C4 – snow may limit access?? Worth checking 🚩
- Dosojin in front of Sakakiya Ryokan d5 – was hard to find due to snow build up and had to visit a few times until they cleared the snow on corner of road ✅
- Oboro Tsukiyo no Yakata E7 ✅
- Nozawa Onsen Kouta Memorial at Ogama (song monument) F2 – could see it but couldn’t safely get across the foot bridge in deep snow 🚩
- Furusato no Yu ✅
- Nozawa Onsen Sparena ✅
- Schneider Square✅
BONUS HIDDEN STAMPS
Plus one at tourist office ✅
Plus Corona one at hikage base ✅ (B got it on skis)
Plus Ski museum (B could not locate, this one was suggested by a random so unconfirmed if it exists) 🚩
Plus Nagasaki gondola ✅ (B got it on skis)
Plus Nozawa grand hotel ✅
Mel's Travel Blog 