Places to seeWhere to go in Nagano
Start with the first of these. Each is worth half a day.
Nagano長野県
Nagano is mountains — the Japanese Alps run through it, and it held the Winter Olympics in 1998.
Nagano is mountains — the Japanese Alps run through it, and it held the Winter Olympics in 1998.
Start with the first of these. Each is worth half a day.
It is the coolest place in central Japan in August and the snowiest in February.
The thing it is known for worldwide is at Jigokudani: wild monkeys that sit in a hot spring, in the snow, ignoring the people watching. It is a level thirty-minute walk through forest from the car park, and the monkeys are there most days in winter. You do not get in with them.
Getting in: Matsumoto Airport · Nagano Station (shinkansen, 1h 20m from Tokyo)
Pick the season first and the days will arrange themselves.
Snow lingers into April in the mountains. Takato’s cherry trees are mid-April, and Kamikochi opens.
The coolest summer in central Japan. Rainy in June, then clear mountain weather.
Autumn colour comes down from the peaks through October. Kamikochi closes in mid-November.
Deep snow, skiing, and the monkeys in the hot spring — which is the picture people come for.
