Yudanaka Station, a hot spring town on the way to Shiga Kogen

Yudanaka Station is the base station of a branch line of the Nagano Electric Railway. From here you can go up to SMP (Snow Monkey Park) where monkeys take a bath, or you can spend another 20 minutes to reach Shiga Kogen Ski Resort, the largest ski resort in Japan. The town is very quiet, with not many tourists (mostly Europeans and Americans). If you want to go to Shiga/North Shiga, this is a good transit base.