Погода: Каруидзава, февраль

Forum threads comparing Japan's Nagano resorts put Nozawa Onsen in the conversation alongside Shiga Kogen and Hakuba: one destination expert suggests Shiga as the much larger alternative, describes Nozawa's black runs as un-groomed and mogul-strewn, and offers a rough weather rule from Hakuba that only about one day in three is fine weather, with Nozawa likely the same. February is when that exchange rate matters least, because the snowpack is deepest in the record - 91.7cm of snowfall across the month on top of January's even larger total - with daytime highs of just 2.9 degrees, nights near minus five that feel like minus nine, and 7.8 hours of sun.

Regulars are specific this town is a genuine summer escape from Tokyo, sitting around 6C cooler even at the hottest point of the year, daytime highs commonly cited in the mid-20s Celsius with noticeably drier air than the capital. Our row backs that mild, genuinely wet read, 24.9C over 16.1C nights feeling 18C, with a substantial 241.5mm of rain across 22.7 days and humidity at 86 percent. Regulars are consistent this month specifically still carries the tail end of the tsuyu rainy season passing through, August generally reading as the drier, more reliably blue-sky month by comparison. Sudden showers and thunderstorms remain a genuine local feature regardless of which summer month a trip lands in. The record: 8.9 hours of sun, a 7.4 kph wind and AQI 48.

The altitude here is the whole story in April. Regulars put this town at ten to fifteen Fahrenheit degrees colder than Tokyo in mid-month, still cold and windy enough that outdoor time is limited, and warn it is not worth multiple days for that reason alone. Our row backs the chill precisely: 14.2C reading as 12C, nights at 0.4C feeling like -2C, with 7.7cm still in the snow column and 109.9mm of rain across 12.5 days. The blossom lags behind the rest of the country and its timing is unpredictable from year to year - visitors chasing sakura are pointed toward nearby Nagano valley spots like Komoro Castle Park rather than the town itself. The record: humidity 72 percent, 9.4 hours of sun, a 12.2 kph wind and AQI 56.

August is widely called Japan's worst month - wet, sticky heat with nights that stay above 30C - and Karuizawa exists as the answer to it. Our row gives 25.7C by day and 17C at night, which is the gap that made this a resort town and filled it with Tokyo second homes; it is an hour by shinkansen. What the escape costs is rain: 194.9mm across 22.2 precipitation days at 85 percent humidity, as wet as June even with the tsuyu long finished. The crowd date is Obon, around the 15th, when Karuizawa gets properly busy - though regulars note it is nothing like New Year or Golden Week. The record: feels-like 29C, 9.8 hours of sun, a 7.8 kph wind and AQI 46.

Karuizawa exists as an escape from the Tokyo summer, and June is the start of that: cool because of the elevation, green from May through July, and full of people with second homes waiting out the heat. Our row's 21C day over an 11.2C night is the whole appeal. The rain is where the usual Japanese advice undersells this place. Regulars describe the tsuyu as manageable, maybe a wet day a week with some grey ones between, while our row carries 198.8mm across 19.5 precipitation days - two days in three, ten millimetres on each. That gap has now appeared at Kanazawa, Hakone, Matsumoto, Nikko and here: the mountain towns are wetter than the national summary. The record: humidity 82 percent, 9.1 hours of sun, an 8.8 kph wind and AQI 59.