Nagano is where Japan’s New Year is most a matter of snow, temples and hot water. Zenko-ji, one of the oldest and most visited temples in the country, rings in the year with a bell anyone can queue to strike and a service at one o’clock in the morning; the mountains around it are deep in snow; the snow monkeys of Jigokudani are in their hot spring; and the ski resorts of Hakuba, Nozawa and Shiga Kogen are full for the first big week of the season.
It is also unusually easy to reach. The Hokuriku Shinkansen gets you from Tokyo to Nagano Station in about 80–100 minutes, and Zenko-ji is a straight 30-minute walk up the main street from the station.
Why 2027 is a special year. Zenko-ji holds its Gokaicho — the display of the substitute image of its hidden Buddha, normally once every seven years — from April 4 to June 19, 2027. The previous one drew more than six million visitors. The coming New Year is therefore the last quiet New Year before the temple’s busiest season in years; see our Zenko-ji Gokaicho guide if you are thinking of coming back in spring.
Dates in this guide: The next New Year falls on Friday, January 1, 2027; the holiday runs through Sunday, January 3, with most businesses reopening Monday, January 4. Times below follow recent years — confirm with the temple, shrine or venue before you build a day around them, and allow for snow.
🗓️ The New Year Calendar, Day by Day
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Dec 26–28 | The last normal days. Shops, museums and restaurants open; ski resorts in full swing. |
| Dec 29–31 | Matsumoto Castle closes for the year-end (Dec 29–31). Supermarkets and Nagano’s food halls busy with New Year shopping; many small restaurants close from the 30th or 31st. |
| Dec 31 (Omisoka) | The o-toshitori New Year’s Eve dinner at home or at your inn; toshikoshi soba; numbered tickets for Zenko-ji’s bell are handed out from about 22:00; the bell is struck from midnight. |
| Jan 1 (Ganjitsu) | 01:00 — Zenko-ji’s first service of the year (Chohai-shiki); hatsumode crowds through the day. Matsumoto Castle reopens. Most independent restaurants closed. |
| Jan 1–3 | Zenko-ji’s New Year services (in recent years at 11:00 and 15:00); Suwa Taisha’s Kamisha Honmiya at its busiest. |
| Jan 4–5 | Business resumes; ski resort prices start to drop. |
| Jan 6 | Binzuru-mawashi at Zenko-ji (evening, around 19:00). |
| Jan 15 | Nozawa Onsen Dosojin Fire Festival (preparations from Jan 13). In 2027 it falls on a Friday. |
| Late January | The Matsumoto Castle Ice Sculpture Festival (2026 edition: Jan 23–25) and the deepest snow of the year. |
🔔 Zenko-ji: The Bell, the 1am Service and a Night in a Temple Lodging
Zenko-ji is not affiliated with any one Buddhist school, which is why for centuries everyone came here — and why New Year here feels open rather than exclusive. Recent years have run like this:
- Joya no kane, the year-end bell. From midnight, the bell is struck by the first 108 people in line, matching the 108 earthly desires the bell is said to clear. Numbered tickets have been handed out in front of the bell tower from about 22:00 on December 31, and it costs nothing. If you want to strike it rather than listen to it, be at the bell tower well before 22:00 — in a cold year, that means standing in snow.
- Chohai-shiki at 01:00. About an hour after midnight, the temple’s monks gather in the main hall for the first service of the year. Visitors fill the hall behind them; it is one of the most atmospheric New Year moments anywhere in Japan, and far calmer than a midnight shrine crush in Tokyo.
- New Year services, Jan 1–3, in recent years at 11:00 and 15:00.
- The Okaidan. The pitch-dark passage under the main hall, where you feel along the wall for the “key to paradise”, is open over New Year — expect a queue on Jan 1–3.
Stay in a shukubo. Zenko-ji is surrounded by around 39 temple lodgings (shukubo), run by the sub-temples that line the approach. A New Year night in one means a vegetarian dinner, a futon, and an early-morning walk to the O-asaji, the temple’s daily dawn service, with your host priest. They sell out for the holiday months in advance — and the 2027 Gokaicho has made spring bookings even harder, so book New Year early.
Crowds: Zenko-ji typically draws more than half a million visitors over the first three days. Jan 1 from late morning to mid-afternoon is the peak. The bell and the 1am service are crowded but orderly; Jan 4–10 is quiet, with the New Year decorations still up.
Jan 6 — Binzuru-mawashi. Zenko-ji’s wooden statue of Binzuru, the healing disciple whose face has been rubbed smooth by centuries of hands, is hauled around the hall by monks and worshippers in the evening; afterwards a rice paddle is handed out to rub on the statue for a year of good health. Free; just turn up at the main hall.
⛩️ Hatsumode Beyond Zenko-ji
| Shrine / temple | Character at New Year |
|---|---|
| Suwa Taisha (Lake Suwa) | One of Japan’s oldest shrines, in four parts on both sides of the lake. Kamisha Honmiya is the busiest (around 200,000 visitors, stalls along the approach, traffic restrictions Jan 1–3); Shimosha Harumiya is the calm one. See our Suwa Taisha guide . |
| Togakushi Shrine (above Nagano city) | Five shrines on a sacred mountain, about 40–60 minutes by bus from Nagano. In winter the Okusha (inner shrine) approach is a long walk on packed snow under the famous cedars — spectacular, but slippery, and the inner shrines' winter arrangements change in early January. Chusha is the practical New Year stop, with soba next door. See our Togakushi guide . |
| Matsumoto’s Yohashira Shrine | Central Matsumoto, near Nawate Street, dedicated to four deities at once — the city’s popular “all-in-one” New Year visit, combined with the castle. |
Timing: for any of these, January 1 before 08:00 or January 4–10 gives you the shrine without the crowd. 10:00–16:00 on January 1–3 is the peak. Wear boots with real grip: shrine steps and stone approaches in Nagano are icy, and the cold (often −5 °C at night in Nagano city, far colder in the mountains) is the real hazard.
🐒 Snow Monkeys, Castles and Hot Water
- Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park is open every day in winter (around 9:00–16:00) and is at its most famous now, with the macaques sitting in a steaming pool in the snow. The approach is a 25–35 minute forest walk on packed snow — wear proper boots or rent crampons in the area. The monkeys are wild and some days they simply do not come down, so check the park’s live feed or social media the morning you go. See our snow monkey guide .
- Shibu Onsen and Yudanaka, just below the park, are the natural place to spend a night: a stone-paved hot spring town where you walk between nine small public baths in a cotton yukata.
- Matsumoto Castle, one of only five castles whose keep is designated a National Treasure, is closed Dec 29–31 and has in recent years opened again on Jan 1–3 with shorter hours (around 10:00–15:30). Its black keep against the snowy Northern Alps is the single best winter photograph in central Japan. See our Matsumoto Castle guide .
- Ski resorts: Hakuba, Nozawa Onsen and Shiga Kogen are at their most expensive and most crowded from about December 28 to January 3. Lessons, rental and lift-included packages sell out early — and Hakuba in particular is now an international resort where English-language ski schools are booked months ahead. See our Nagano ski guide .
🍲 Salmon or Yellowtail: Eating at New Year in Nagano
Nagano’s New Year begins at the table on the night of December 31, with the o-toshitori — a family “year-taking” dinner that is in many households more important than anything eaten on January 1.
- The New Year fish divides the prefecture. Broadly, the north and east (Nagano city, Ueda) eat salmon, while Matsumoto and the centre and south eat yellowtail (buri) carried inland from the Sea of Japan along the old “buri road”. It is one of Japan’s best-known food boundaries, and inns serving an o-toshitori dinner will show you which side of it you are on.
- Shinshu soba for toshikoshi — Nagano is Japan’s soba heartland, and Togakushi soba is one of the country’s three great soba. See our soba guide .
- Oyaki, the stuffed dumplings of the mountains, sold steaming along Zenko-ji’s approach even on New Year’s Day. See our oyaki guide .
- Nozawana-zuke, the pickled greens that appear with every winter meal, at their best from December. See our nozawana guide .
- Shichimi from Yawataya Isogoro, the spice shop founded in 1736 at Zenko-ji’s gate, is the classic souvenir of a New Year visit.
A caution about mochi: rice cakes in zoni soup and grilled mochi are a genuine choking hazard and send people to hospital in Japan every New Year. Cut them small and chew thoroughly.
🚆 Transport, Weather and Money
Getting there: the Hokuriku Shinkansen runs Tokyo–Nagano in about 80–100 minutes and continues to Kanazawa; for Matsumoto, take the Azusa limited express from Shinjuku (about 2h40) or change at Nagano. Reserved seats for December 28–30 and January 2–4 sell out weeks ahead — book the moment they go on sale, one month before travel.
Getting around: buses to Togakushi, Jigokudani and the ski resorts run reduced holiday timetables on January 1–3. The Nagaden line from Nagano Station to Yudanaka (for the monkeys) runs normally but crowds on Jan 2–3. Taxis are scarce on the night of December 31 and on January 1.
Weather: Nagano city is cold and dry with regular snow; Hakuba, Nozawa and Togakushi are under deep snow. Night temperatures of −5 to −10 °C are normal. Sunrise on January 1 is around 7:00. Mountain roads can close; do not plan a tight self-drive itinerary.
What to wear: waterproof boots with grip (or slip-on cleats), thermal layers, gloves and a hat. Waiting for the bell at 22:00 is the coldest hour of the trip.
Money: bank counters close December 31 to January 3; convenience store ATMs (7-Eleven, Lawson) take foreign cards. Shukubo, small soba shops and stalls on the approach are often cash-only.
🗺️ A Day-by-Day Plan: December 30 to January 4
Dec 30 — Snow monkeys. Morning train to Yudanaka and the walk to Jigokudani while the crowds are still manageable. Spend the night at Shibu Onsen, bathing your way along its public baths.
Dec 31 — Omisoka at Zenko-ji. Back to Nagano and check in to a shukubo or a hotel near the temple. Afternoon: the main hall and the Okaidan before the crowds, then toshikoshi soba. Early evening: the o-toshitori dinner at your lodging. From about 21:30, queue at the bell tower if you want one of the 108 tickets; strike the bell after midnight, then join the 01:00 Chohai-shiki in the main hall.
Jan 1 — Dawn service and the mountain shrine. If you are in a shukubo, the priest will lead you to the O-asaji dawn service — tired, but unforgettable. Then by bus to Togakushi for hatsumode at Chusha and a bowl of Togakushi soba. Dinner at your lodging or a hotel restaurant; assume most independents are closed.
Jan 2 — Matsumoto. Train to Matsumoto (about 50 minutes). The castle in the morning with the Alps behind it, then Yohashira Shrine and Nawate Street. Department stores reopen with New Year lucky bags. Overnight in Matsumoto or at Asama Onsen just outside.
Jan 3 — Suwa or skiing. Either Suwa Taisha — go to the quieter Shimosha Harumiya first, then Akimiya — or a day on the slopes at Hakuba, 1h30 by bus from Nagano or by train from Matsumoto.
Jan 4 — The prefecture reopens. Restaurants, museums and shops are back and resort prices begin to fall. A good day for Zenko-ji again — the same decorations, a fraction of the crowd — or for the drive back.
If you can stay longer: Jan 6 for the Binzuru-mawashi at Zenko-ji; Jan 15 for the Nozawa Fire Festival, one of Japan’s three great fire festivals — book Nozawa lodging very early. See our Nozawa fire festival guide and the full Nagano events calendar .
Should You Come to Nagano at New Year?
Yes, if you want a New Year that is genuinely religious rather than merely busy — striking a temple bell at midnight, a 1am service, a night with the monks — together with snow monkeys, a National Treasure castle in snow and the start of the ski season, all within two hours of Tokyo.
No, if cold is a deal-breaker or you are travelling on a tight budget: December 28 to January 3 is the most expensive week of the ski year. January 6–20 gives you the same snow, the monkeys, the Binzuru-mawashi and the Nozawa Fire Festival, at lower prices and with Zenko-ji almost to yourself — the last quiet weeks before the 2027 Gokaicho.
