Gujo ski property for sale

Winter brings the snow the area is known for, deep and frequent from December, with the resorts busiest at weekends when Nagoya drives up. Spring is snowmelt and fresh water: the Nagara and Yoshida rivers run clear, and the season's first sweetfish come in early summer. Summer belongs to the Gujo Odori, one of Japan's three great Bon dances, held on more than thirty nights from mid-July to early September, with the town dancing all night through mid-August. Hirugano's highland is cool enough for camping and hiking while the cities swelter. Autumn is foliage along the river and in the beech forests above Takasu.

Gujo's signature is keichan, chicken marinated in miso or soy and stir-fried with cabbage at the table, a local favourite at New Year and Obon. The rivers supply ayu, sweetfish grilled over charcoal with salt. Gujo miso, Meiho ham from the next valley, mountain vegetables and soba fill out the menus. And Gujo Hachiman makes most of Japan's plastic food samples, the replica dishes in restaurant windows across the country: you can make your own in the town's workshops.

For an estate house, read the estate first. Most are run by a management company that maintains the roads and clears the snow, and some supply the water, for a yearly fee. Ask what the fee covers, what it has been in recent years, and whether the roads are cleared all winter. Takasu and Shirotori get heavy snow, so ask how the roof sheds it, whether it has been cleared in past winters, and where the snow from the drive goes. Pipes freeze in an empty house, so a second home needs draining down or heating over winter, and someone local to check on it.

Many of the cheapest houses are older timber cabins sold as they stand, so budget for insulation, windows and heating as well as the purchase. Houses in Gujo Hachiman and the valley towns have shops, a hospital and schools close by, at the cost of a longer drive to the lifts. If you plan to let the house to skiers, check the estate's rules as well as the city's.