North Nagano · Nozawa OnsenNo.1247★★Open in map →
Nozawana Pickles
Nagano's winter staple: long-stemmed greens salted whole in a wooden barrel. The plant is named after Nozawa Onsen, and the village's roadside station on Route 117 is the public counter where its own barrels are sold.
- FromToyota-Iiyama IC (Joshin-etsu Expressway)
- ~30 minCar, ~30 min from Toyota-Iiyama IC
- Get off atMichi-no-Eki Nozawa Onsen (on National Route 117)
- On foot
- Nozawana Pickles
The sweet spot
Nozawana pickles sit in every supermarket in Nagano, so there is nothing rare about them. What gets missed is that the name points at one small village in the snow country, and that the village still fills its own barrels. The roadside station is where that connection is on a shelf rather than on a label.
Where it is
27 more notes in Nagano · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Farm produce direct-sales floorshelves stocked by village growers — mountain vegetables in spring, nozawana and root crops in autumn
- Souvenir shopvillage-made nozawana pickles beside an original souvenir line drawn for the station
- Tofu and yuba workshopa small production room working soybeans grown on the village's idle fields
- Farm restauranta dining room built around local vegetables, including a green curry made with nozawana
- Information cornernotices for the village and for neighbouring Iiyama and Sakae
How to actually get there
- Joshin-etsu Expressway → Toyota-Iiyama IC.
- Toyota-Iiyama IC → National Route 117 north along the Chikuma River (about 30 min).
- Route 117 → Michi-no-Eki Nozawa Onsen, in the Mushu district of the village.
- Station → Nozawa Onsen village up the valley, if you want the hot springs as well.
- By car from Toyota-Iiyama IC
- The station stands on National Route 117 north of Nozawa Onsen village. Its own guidance puts the drive at about 30 minutes from Toyota-Iiyama IC on the Joshin-etsu Expressway, and about 15 minutes from the village itself. Route 117 follows the Chikuma River the whole way.
- Back toward Iiyama
- Retrace Route 117 south for Iiyama, where the Hokuriku Shinkansen stops. Allow the same road time in reverse. The building closes in the late afternoon, so time the return for before the shop shuts rather than after.
About the place
Nozawana is a leafy brassica grown for its stem and leaf rather than its root. It is sown in autumn, left standing until the cold arrives, and cut once frost has passed through the field. What follows belongs to this village in particular: the cut greens are washed, traditionally in hot-spring water, then packed whole into a large wooden barrel with salt and weighted down. Lactic fermentation does the rest, and the colour turns from green toward amber as the weeks go by. The roadside station sits on National Route 117 at the northern road entrance to the village, and it gathers the greens, the pickle and the growers under one roof.
How to enjoy it
The direct-sales floor opens at 9:00 and closes at 16:00, earlier than the shop beside it, so come in the morning if the produce shelves are the point. The restaurant starts serving at 11:00. Pickled nozawana is on the shelves all year, while the village's own barrels are filled after the autumn cut, and the taste shifts from fresh and green toward sour as the winter goes on.
Background & history
The village temple keeps an account of where the plant came from. In 1756 its head priest is said to have come back from study in Kyoto carrying seed of a turnip variety grown near Osaka, sown it behind the temple, and found that what came up put everything into leaf and stem instead of root. The agriculture ministry records the same story. Later genetic work has not supported that descent, so the origin is best read as a village tradition rather than a settled fact.
Before you go
- Cash
- The station has its own car park, with spaces for larger vehicles and an EV charger. The restaurant takes cash and cards. The direct-sales floor runs on consignment from village growers, so what is on the shelf changes by the day and by the season.
- Before you go
- The shop closes on the third Wednesday of the month, and the direct-sales floor keeps additional rest days outside the main harvest season. This is heavy snow country, so winter driving here needs proper preparation.
- Another way
- Nozawa Onsen village itself lies up the valley, about fifteen minutes by road. Buses from Iiyama Station run to the village rather than to the station, so reaching the station without a car means a taxi or the village community bus.
- After you get off
- The station is directly on Route 117 with its own car park. The shop, the direct-sales floor and the restaurant share one building, and the tofu workshop is in the same complex.