JAPAN
Highlands, old roads, and silent snow.
Pick a category that interests you and find the trip that suits you.
PICK UP
From entries with clearly licensed photos.
NaganoFive shrines in all, including Okusha, Chusha and Hokosha. The avenue of cedars running about 500 metres to Okusha is famous. The name comes from the myth in which the rock thrown from the heavenly cave became Mount Togakushi.
See details
Nagano663highland · CC BY 2.5
Shimosuwaz tanuki · CC BY 3.0 ↗
UedaIts object of worship is the ground itself, beneath the floor of the main hall. Many written prayers by Takeda Shingen survive here.
See detailsIntroduced by city, ward, town and village within the prefecture.
ObuseCulture & History, Nature & Scenery · 81 entriesNaganoShrines & Temples, Nature & Scenery · 19 entries
UedaShrines & Temples, Nature & Scenery · 15 entries
MatsumotoNature & Scenery, Art & Crafts · 13 entries
AzuminoArt & Crafts, Shrines & Temples · 9 entries
SuwaArt & Crafts, Shrines & Temples · 7 entries
FEATURENagano now (autumn)Autumn colors spread across the Japanese Alps and historic post towns.See the feature lumoplank · CC0Check information useful for planning, for a fuller trip.
JAPAN GUIDE
No worries even on a first trip to Japan. Useful things to know, explained clearly.
See all guidesThis answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete. The answ…
Read the answer →This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete. The answ…
Read the answer →This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete. The answ…
Read the answer →REGIONAL SPECIALTIES
It is not only the big cities. The regions are full of charm, and special experiences you can only have in each place are waiting.
Value Village
Regional culture, tradition, food, sightseeing, nature and people. A directory that delivers the appeal of each to the whole world.
About Value Village
INSTAGRAM / 6
Local governments, tourism accounts and local posts are shown with official embeds. Photos are not stored on Value Village; they link to the original posts.
THINGS TO DO / 6
Choose from what you can only do here.
01Hike KamikochiWalk beside the Azusa River beneath the soaring Hotaka peaks.See related entries →Ray Swi-hymn · CC BY-SA 2.0
02Visit Zenkoji TempleVisit the great wooden hall and follow the temple's dark underground passage.See related entries →Public domain
03Climb Matsumoto CastleClimb the original wooden keep for views of the city and surrounding mountains.See related entries →663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0
04Walk the NakasendoWalk old highway streets lined with wooden buildings in Tsumago and Narai.See related entries →Miyuki Meinaka · Public domain
05See the Snow MonkeysObserve Japanese macaques bathing in hot springs at Jigokudani.See related entries →Pat457 · CC BY-SA 4.0
06Ski the Hakuba ValleySki varied terrain beneath the dramatic peaks of the Northern Alps.See related entries →くろふね · CC BY 4.0NEED TO KNOW
BEST TIME TO TRAVEL
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0Cherry blossoms at Takato and snowcapped peaks create striking spring scenery.
See recommendations for this season →
ESU · CC BY 3.0Hike through Kamikochi and cool highland landscapes.
See recommendations for this season →lumoplank · CC0Autumn colors spread across the Japanese Alps and historic post towns.
See recommendations for this season →
Romain Guy · CC0Powder slopes, hot springs and bathing snow monkeys await in winter.
See recommendations for this season →LOCAL FOOD / 12
What people have long eaten in this place. We collect the dishes themselves, not restaurants.
Noodles made by adding wheat flour to buckwheat flour as a binder, kneading with water, rolling the dough thin, cutting it into narrow strands and boiling them. They are eaten with a dipping sauce of dashi combined with mirin and soy sauce, with green onion and wasabi added.
Area：Throughout the prefecture
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Dough made by dissolving wheat flour or buckwheat flour in hot water and kneading it, rolled thin and wrapped around fillings such as eggplant with sweet miso, or nozawana greens. Grilling them and then steaming them makes the skin soft.
Area：Hokushin and Chushin areas (throughout the prefecture)
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Pickles made by washing whole heads of nozawana greens, packing them into a barrel with salt, kombu and chili pepper, placing a weight on top and letting them ferment. They are pickled in late autumn and eaten in two ways: lightly pickled, and as older pickles that have turned sour.
Area：Throughout the prefecture (Nozawaonsen)
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Cooked ordinary (non-sticky) rice is mashed about halfway, shaped into flat dumplings and put on bamboo skewers. They are brushed with a sauce of walnuts, sesame, miso and sugar worked together, and grilled until browned.
Area：Kiso, Ina, Kamiina and Shimoina areas
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Freshly boiled udon noodles eaten with a dipping sauce made from the juice squeezed from grated pungent daikon such as nezumi daikon, into which miso, green onion and dried bonito flakes are dissolved.
Area：Hokushin area
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
A miso-based soup made by blanching rounds of carp, simmering them in sake and water, then adding sugar and miso and cooking for several hours. Mashed cooked rice is added to thicken it.
Area：Saku
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Rice cooked from a mix of regular rice and glutinous rice, seasoned with vinegar dressing, spread on a bamboo leaf and topped with ingredients such as fiddlehead ferns, dried shiitake, daikon pickled in miso, and crumbled cooked egg.
Area：Iiyama (Hokushin area)
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Grasshoppers with their legs and wings removed, dry-roasted, then simmered in a boiling mixture of sugar, soy sauce and sake until the liquid is gone. Mirin is added at the end to give them a glaze.
Area：Throughout the prefecture
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
Pickles made by blanching the leaves of red turnips and layering them alternately with the previous year's sunki pickles as a starter, then fermenting them with lactic acid bacteria without using any salt.
Area：Kiso area
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
A soup of nemagari bamboo shoots simmered with canned boiled mackerel and onion, with miso dissolved into it. Tofu or beaten egg is sometimes added.
Area：Hokushin area
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
A sweet made by kneading rice flour and wheat flour with boiling water, steaming the dough, wrapping it around red bean paste, placing it on a magnolia leaf, rolling it up, tying it with rush grass and steaming it again.
Area：Kiso area
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
A rice cake sweet made by adding sugar and salt to rice flour, kneading it with boiling water and steaming it, then mixing in green laver, sesame, black beans and food coloring, shaping it into a bar and slicing it.
Area：Hokushin and Chushin areas
Source：Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), "Our Regional Cuisines"
MICHI-NO-EKI / 54
Rest facilities registered by Japan's national government. Each has parking and toilets open 24 hours, and by definition includes a facility that sells local products. This is where the making and the food of this prefecture can actually be bought.
There are 54 stations in this prefecture in all (national registry).
LOCAL ACCOUNTS / 2
Japanese-language accounts that post about this area.
These are third-party accounts. They are not affiliated with Value Village and this is not an endorsement.
CITIES & TOWNS / 73
Sorted by number of entries. Start from the name of a town.
INTERESTS / 14
Only the interests found in this prefecture.
Suwa Taisha · Pat457 · CC BY-SA 4.0Suwa Taisha ／ Zenkoji
To the listOkaidan Meguri · Public domainOkaidan Meguri ／ Kamikochi
To the list
Bessho Onsen · NY066 · CC BY-SA 3.0Bessho Onsen ／ Chikuma River Park (Riverside Park)
To the list
Tsumago-juku · BobTanGo · CC BY 4.0Tsumago-juku ／ Zenkoji Nakamise
To the listMatsumoto-jo · 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0Matsumoto-jo ／ Narai-juku
To the list
Japan Ukiyo-e Museum · Public domainJapan Ukiyo-e Museum ／ Matsumoto Folkcraft Museum
To the list
Nagano Prefectural Art Museum · Qurren · CC BY-SA 4.0Nagano Prefectural Art Museum ／ Higashiyama Kaii Gallery
To the list
Obasute Rice Terraces · MOILIP · CC BY-SA 3.0Obasute Rice Terraces ／ Takato Castle Site
To the list
Ryukei Inkstones · 海獺 · CC BY-SA 4.0Ryukei Inkstones ／ Seiko Epson Head Office
To the listHokushin Taxi ／ Northern Alps View Ikeda Dining Hall Shinkuikan
To the list
Nozawa Dosojin · 小石川人晃 · CC BY-SA 4.0Nozawa Dosojin
To the list
Marukome Head Office Plant · TTTNIS · CC0Marukome Head Office Plant ／ Miyasaka Brewing Masumi Suwa Brewery
To the listGlass Gallery & Studio GLASS STUDIO Licco ／ Iwaien
To the listObuse Rickshaw Haradaya ／ Obuse Milk
To the listHIGHLIGHTS
From entries with clearly licensed photos.
Shrines & TemplesFour shrines make it up: Kamisha Honmiya and Maemiya, Shimosha Akimiya and Harumiya, and some of them have no main hall at all. Once every seven years, at the Onbashira festival, huge trees cut from the mountain are hauled by hand and raised at the four corners of the halls.
ArchitectureA surviving keep, and a National Treasure. The black weatherboarding gives it the name Crow Castle.
Historic DistrictsThe first post town in Japan to take up townscape preservation. Small shrines are dotted along the highway.
Nature & SceneryYou feel your way along a pitch-dark corridor, and touching the lock is said to promise rebirth in paradise.
Hot SpringsThe Kamakura of Shinshu. Kitamuki Kannon and the National Treasure octagonal pagoda stand close together.
FestivalsA shrine structure is built, then set alight, with the villagers defending and attacking it.
SMILE NEWS / 136
Stories that lift your spirits a little, collected with their sources.
The soba club of Nagano Yoshida High School's Togakushi branch won the team event at the national high school soba-making competition held on August 5 in Ota, Gunma, for its third straight title. The members will pay a courtesy visit to the governor at the Nagano Prefectural Office on October 9.
source: NaganoIn Chile's Patagonia National Park, a women-led ranger team returned 13 Darwin's rheas to the wild in April 2026. Working with the Rewilding Chile Foundation, they care for the birds around the clock; surveys once estimated only about 11 to 15 remained.
source: MongabayA new dinosaur species, Musango matusadonaensis, has been described from rocks about 210 million years old in Matusadona National Park on the shore of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. The bipedal, not-yet-adult animal was about 4.5 metres long, and the find suggests Zimbabwe's dinosaur fauna differed from South Africa's.
source: Phys.org (The Conversation)INSTAGRAM / SHRINES & TEMPLES / 7
Posts by shrine and goshuin creators. Posts whose hashtags match a VV entry also appear on that entry's page.
View on Instagram ↗
View on Instagram ↗
View on Instagram ↗
View on Instagram ↗
View on Instagram ↗
View on Instagram ↗
View on Instagram ↗
Request removal: [email protected]
Hashtags often used for this area. Each opens the tag page on Instagram.
SEASONS & EVENTS
2026-08-15 ～ 2026-08-15
2026-10-24 ～ 2026-11-23
2026-10-31 ～ 2026-11-08
2026-11-23 ～ 2026-11-23
Suwa and others
Omachi
Tenryu
Agematsu
Oshika
Takagi
BEFORE YOU GO
TRAVEL
Real photos of the region. Select an image to enlarge it.
Enlarge ↗
Enlarge ↗Scenery you have never seen, flavors you never knew, people you would never otherwise meet. A journey to feel this beautiful Japan closer.
Start the journey
.jpg){kind=link}