Ginzan Onsen was a silver mining settlement, which is what the name means, and when the mine closed the hot spring kept the village alive. What is left is one short street in a narrow gorge, with three and four storey wooden inns facing each other across a small river, built in the 1910s and 20s and never modernised.

In the evening the gas lamps come on along the street. In winter there is a metre of snow on the roofs and the river runs black between the buildings. There is no traffic; cars are left at the edge of the village.

It is genuinely small. You can walk the whole street in four minutes. The point is not to cover ground; it is to stand there in the snow at dusk, in the light of the lamps, and take the photograph everyone has seen and very few people have actually taken themselves.

You should know that the village has become very popular and has introduced access controls in winter, and that the day-visitor rules change from season to season. We check what applies to your date and tell you before the tour.

The rest of the trip is Yamagata: a mountain temple of a thousand steps cut into a cliff, soba noodles the region is serious about, and roads through deep snow country with very little traffic on them.

DAY 1 the drive north, Yamagata country, and Ginzan at dusk.
DAY 2 the mountain temple or the snow country, then home.

This is a private tour. Only your group in the vehicle.

If access to the village is restricted on your date we will tell you before the tour and you may move the date.