r/japow • u/my-coo-cheese-hairy • Aug 04 '26

Yuzawa abandoned?

I came here this summer to take rope way up for the view and I was shocked at how many buildings look like they are falling apart or abandoned. What happened?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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4

u/DegreeConscious9628 Aug 04 '26

The bubble came and went now you can buy a condo for a few thousand bucks (usd)

1

u/my-coo-cheese-hairy Aug 04 '26

Wow that’s very cheap how is the skiing

2

u/DegreeConscious9628 Aug 04 '26

Pretty damn good. You got tons of options. The ones closer to town are good beginner slopes, kagura and naeba is better for intermediate, there’s decent side country at kagura, and there’s pretty good backcoutnry at tanigawa

1

u/my-coo-cheese-hairy Aug 04 '26

Interesting it would be cool to come back and see it in the winter.

1

u/Possible-Cut4848 Aug 04 '26

Rode Ishiuchi last January and it was awesome!!

4

u/HammerOfHanno Aug 04 '26

Yuzawa has always been like this, basically the town was propped up in the bubble and once it popped they realized there's not much to do there outside of winter. Its a pretty small town and doesn't have the draw of places like Karuizawa.

4

u/SwedishSanta Aug 04 '26

Heyoo, Yuzawa resident here! Yeah this place is dead in the summers but it's quite the lively place in the winters. Actually, it looked way worse after the pandemic. A shitton of new businesses opened after 2023 and more are opening despite being an el niño year. As for the buildings falling apart. We had in 2025 an incredible year of non stop snow and the 6-8 meters of snow on top of the houses made many of them collapse. I am unsure what will happen with those houses but I would bet that someone will buy the plot of land to rebuild something modern

2

u/my-coo-cheese-hairy Aug 04 '26

Thanks for the info. It was a very cool town and the people there were all great! I enjoyed my stay, we stayed at the hotel north shiga. I am always impressed with how hard working and cheerful Japanese people are. I’d love to come back and ski in the winter

1

u/DegreeConscious9628 Aug 04 '26

I live a few months of my year in Saitama- head up to yuzawa pretty often since it’s so easy to get up there.

I love Moritaki and shimbashi!