Hokuriku Shinkansen - places to visit?

I'm going to be travelling from Kanazawa to Tokyo on the Hokuriku in October. I was wondering if there were any recommendations of places to visit, located near any shinkansen stations along the way? It's a long train ride, and I'd like to stop and have a bite to eat along the way and visit somewhere I've never seen. Maybe a particularly relaxing onsen available to the public? A great place for food? Or a beautiful garden or temple? Thanks!

Hi!

Well, there is the obvious Zenkoji in Nagano. If you want to spend more time there, you can take the private line or bus to Yudanaka or Shibu onsen and see the monkeys.

If you wanted to take one of the slower shinkansen you can stop at Ueda and travel to Bessho Onsen by private line. I also liked Ueda.

You can also read up on Karuizawa as a possibility.

It's a long train ride
???? It's pretty quick actually, just 2.5 hours, so hardly long. I have never felt the need to stop and get off when doing that trip.

However, Nagano is a logical place if you wanted to put in a visit Zenkoji.
You could also stop at Omiya and head to the JREast train museum if you like trains.

Kurobe-UnazakiOnsen Station provides access to Unazaki Onsen. It's closer to the Kanazawa side, but the gorge is scenic and some of the onsen look quite nice:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7575.html

I second Kurobe Gorge. Though done that as a daytrip from Kanazawa. Will be more colourful if towards end of October.

Perfect advice! Thank you!

Watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymrhp1MrN_4