Nozawa Onsen Lodge (野沢温泉ロッヂ)

Nozawa Onsen Lodge stands beside the Nagasaka slope, in the village of the same name. It was finished in 1969 as accommodation for learning ski technique, to plans by Takamasa Yoshizaka and Atelier U. Its shape earned it many nicknames, among them Egg, Rocket and Avocado House. Yoshizaka also likened it to a horsetail shoot coming up in spring; during the design stage he presented it to the owner of the time as a coiled shell whose outer form and inner spiral are one.

In 2014 the lodge changed hands. The previous owner, a ski coach, had trained many well-known skiers. The new one, an alpine skier since childhood, had stayed there for training camps and competitions; having learned later that Yoshizaka had designed it, he took it on to hand it down to later generations. According to the owner, the interior, which had been largely altered, was then returned to its original layout, from the architect's drawings, in works carried out with friends.

On 22 November 2024 the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the lodge for entry among the registered tangible cultural properties; the registration dates from 13 March 2025.

The building is shaped like an acorn. Its plan is a regular hexagon, with a spiral staircase at the centre that opens like a well; on each level, small rooms are laid out like spokes around it. It has three storeys above ground and a basement, on a footprint of 79 m², in timber and reinforced concrete, under a steel-sheet roof; the outer walls, also steel sheet, are green.

The timber frame is complex: the posts around the stairs are not continuous from one level to the next, the posts around the perimeter tilt at each floor to follow the shape, and the floors are split-level, so the floor level of each storey is not uniform. The principle itself stays simple: rooms lined up around an open staircase. Among Yoshizaka's dome-shaped mountain huts it stands out for its three levels and its complex frame, where others have a single level and a simple, clear structure.

The area gets more than 3 m of snow. The steel-sheet roof and walls are shaped so that the snow slides off by itself, which spares clearing it, and the edges of the openings are detailed so that snow does not settle there.

A hotel today, the lodge has a ground-floor lounge and a shared kitchen, where guests meet and can also work remotely.

Open to its guests all year round, the lodge is booked online through the operator's website. It stands one minute on foot from the main gondola.