By TAKESHI SAKAGAMI/ Staff Writer
January 30, 2025 at 07:00 JST
YUZAWA, Akita Prefecture—As a taxi driver escorted three Australians into JR Yuzawa Station's tourist information center here, an employee was hit with an unfortunate sense of deja vu.
The young couple and their kindergartener were all clad in ski gear on Dec. 9.
That told her their intended destination was JR Echigo-Yuzawa Station in the town of Yuzawa in Niigata Prefecture, a landing point for large ski resorts that attract many overseas visitors.
The problem was that the two stations are several hundreds of kilometers apart, far from a simple mix-up.
According to the staffer, it takes at least four hours to get to Yuzawa Station from Tokyo.
So, when foreign tourists depart from Tokyo Station in the morning, they typically turn up at the center a little past 3 p.m., mistakenly believing they have arrived at Echigo-Yuzawa Station.
This happens several times a month.
Once at Yuzawa Station, the only way to correct course and get to Echigo-Yuzawa Station is to backtrack by boarding the Akita Shinkansen Line for Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture and then transfer to the Joetsu Shinkansen Line.
"But if you do so, you will arrive at Echigo-Yuzawa Station late at night no matter how hard you try,” she said. "I feel bad, so I would rather refer you to a hotel or an onsen inn here."
NOT THAT KIND OF RESORT
There are no ski slopes in the city of Yuzawa. What it is famous for are its hot spring resorts that are lesser known among tourists from abroad.
The staffer added it is not rare for inbound visitors to mistake Yuzawa Station for Echigo-Yuzawa Station.
As for the Australian family who showed up on Dec. 9, she directed them to a hotel in the city.
"I think the taxi driver and employees at the JR station were all kind to them. The family left Yuzawa Station the next day looking happy," she said.
In the summer of 2023, a young French couple sought help at the tourist information center to find a hotel they thought they booked in "Yuzawa."
They said they came to see the Nishimonai Bon odori dance festival, which is held in the neighboring town of Ugo and registered on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
The employee helping them then discovered that the couple had made a reservation at a hotel in the Echigo-Yuzawa area in Niigata Prefecture.
With all hotels almost fully booked during the Bon odori season, staffers called one accommodation facility after another to secure a room for the couple in the city. Staff also called the Echigo-Yuzawa hotel to cancel their reservation.
The couple deeply appreciated their efforts.
"There are the Oyasukyo, Oyu, Doroyu and Akinomiya hot spring resorts in the Yuzawa area," the employee said, smiling. “As there are many foreign visitors in many areas in Japan nowadays, Japanese customers say they feel ‘relieved’ in Yuzawa where there are few foreigners. I wonder which sentiment is better.”
'RIVAL' TOURIST CENTERS
Officials of the tourism and geopark promotion division at the Yuzawa city government said the number of international visitors staying overnight between January and September 2024 was 1,479.
Meanwhile, the tourist information center at Echigo-Yuzawa Station receives inquiries from non-Japanese visitors once a day or less.
According to a staffer working for the center, non-Japanese seemingly account for 70 to 80 percent of its patrons depending on the day.
When asked whether there are people who mistake Echigo-Yuzawa Station for Yuzawa Station, the employee said, "Oh, there was one such case recently. I remember saying, 'That onsen is in Akita Prefecture.'"
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