Погода: Никко, январь

Nozawa Onsen forum threads describe January as reliably snow-sure but not necessarily the season's deepest - early January can bring only medium coverage, with snow building noticeably thicker by late month and February generally rated as the peak for genuine powder. Posters were clear that while Nozawa reliably has plenty of snow, it doesn't quite match Hokkaido's famously light, dry powder specifically. January also draws heavy crowds from the Australian school holiday period, a scheduling factor worth knowing alongside the snow itself. The onsen village setting was repeatedly praised as a highlight distinct from the skiing - a genuine hot-spring town wrapped around the resort rather than a purpose-built ski base.

Forum posters describe January at Nozawa Onsen as cold and consistently snowy, with late December into early January bringing plenty of both, and longer daylight hours than midwinter further north. Posters describe the resort as comfortably uncrowded through January even with a heavy Australian presence tied to school holidays, reporting lift waits of around 10 minutes at most and great snow across much of the terrain, though the least-covered years can limit off-piste options. Posters consistently flag accommodation as the real planning bottleneck rather than the weather, recommending booking well in advance given limited lodging in the traditional onsen town. Posters generally rate January as an excellent, genuinely uncrowded time to ski Nozawa Onsen, with public onsens for après-ski a distinctive bonus over a typical Western resort town.

Regulars are specific the lower Toshogu area can turn cold and rainy with sleet even as the mountains above stay genuinely hard to predict, snow at higher elevations a real possibility - one memorable year even brought a snowstorm as late as April 1st. Our row backs that cold, genuinely wet read, 10.1C over -0.1C nights feeling as low as -4C, with a substantial 131.9mm of rain across 14.6 days and real snow, 32.4cm. Regulars are consistent Lake Chuzenji specifically runs colder and more exposed than the lower town, staying cold and crisp even late in the month. Thick coats, hats and gloves remain the standard advice throughout rather than an early-spring wardrobe. The record: humidity 73 percent, 8.5 hours of sun and a 13 kph wind.

September here can be too foggy and wet for good visibility, and regulars say October and November both run drier - our row backs that with 241.5mm across 23 days at 87.9 percent humidity, easily this destination's wettest column of the ones we carry. The consolation is Kegon Falls itself: the volume of water is at its best now, and visitors who caught a clear late-September day call the falls robust and colourful with the season's first hints of colour already showing. Peak foliage in the upper park is a month or more away, mid to late October. Our temperature reads gently, 23.8C over 17.6C, with only 7.5 hours of sun a day standing behind that rain total. The record: an 8.4 kph wind and AQI 38.

The colour here is a question of altitude, not date. Regulars are blunt that the town and shrine area is mostly cedar and does not turn at all, so the autumn everyone comes for is up the Irohazaka road at Chuzenji and Kegon, and by late October that upper ground is in full colour. The cost is the same road: weekends are extremely crowded and the bus up to Oku Nikko can hold you for hours, so the advice is a weekday and a very early start. Light layers do it in October at 17.9C over 10.6C. Our row adds what the board leaves out - 197.7mm across 17.4 days and only 7 hours of sun - so this is a wet month to be planning a view in. The record: humidity 84 percent, a 9.2 kph wind and AQI 32.

For once our snow column is not describing a distant hillside: visitors to Nikko in early April report actual snow, very cold air around Kegon Falls, and at least one April storm that made roads impassable, which is what the 8.5cm in our row is. The split to plan around is inside the destination. Downtown Nikko is the mild part at 15.2C over 4.8C; up at Lake Chuzenji, several hundred metres higher, the mountains are still white and the woods still under snow while the town below is in spring. If the Fukiware-to-Chuzenji road closes there is a low route that adds about two hours. And regulars are blunt that this is not a cherry-blossom destination - Nikko is deciduous forest, not sakura. The record: 142.6mm across 14.9 days, 9.1 hours of sun and AQI 55.