Spots in Nagano

Each spot shows when its facts were last checked against official sources.

By prefecture:

HokkaidoHokkaido (60)

TohokuAomori (30)Iwate (30)Miyagi (40)Akita (30)Yamagata (30)Fukushima (30)

KantoIbaraki (30)Tochigi (30)Gunma (30)Tokyo (30)Kanagawa (30)

ChubuNiigata (30)Ishikawa (30)Yamanashi (30)Nagano (30)Gifu (30)Shizuoka (30)

KansaiMie (30)Kyoto (30)Osaka (30)Hyogo (30)Nara (30)Wakayama (30)

ChugokuHiroshima (30)

ShikokuKagawa (30)

Kyushu & OkinawaFukuoka (30)Nagasaki (30)Kumamoto (30)Oita (30)Okinawa (30)

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Not on the map (location not confirmed on an official source yet): Jigokudani Monkey Park, Kamikochi

No photo yetNagano, NaganoAlps View Plaza Yume no EkiA field of rape blossoms like a yellow carpet, with the snow-capped Northern Alps behind.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoApple Line (Route 18)A major apple-growing area even within Nagano, famous for apples, where orchards spread all around. Apple orchards line both sides of National Route 18, with apple stands and farms offering apple picking, hence the nickname "Apple Line"; in the harvest season you can buy fresh apples and pick them yourself.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoChausuyama Dinosaur ParkA park displaying about 25 life-size dinosaurs from four eras including the Jurassic and Cretaceous; the largest, a Diplodocus, is 25 m long. The dinosaurs are play equipment such as slides you can touch, and about 80 cherry trees on the bank at the entrance form a tunnel of blossom when in full bloom.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoChausuyama ZooA zoo using the natural slopes of Mt. Chausu, where 73 kinds of animals, including red pandas and the Japanese serow (a natural monument), live in 15 ha of grounds. There is a petting corner where you can touch small animals such as rabbits.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoChikumaen Apple PickingA long-established apple stand that has operated since the "Apple Line" road opened, growing about 9 varieties with reduced pesticides. Apple picking is offered, and the stand also sells its own apple juice and jam; all ages (0 to 100) and pets are OK.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoDaizahoshi PondA pond at the entrance to the Iizuna Highland, said in legend to have formed when the giant Daidarabotchi sat on Mt. Iizuna and stepped forward, leaving a footprint that filled with water. A path goes round it in about 20 minutes, with campgrounds, boating, a field athletics course and tennis courts nearby.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoForest Adventure NaganoA forest adventure course on the Iizuna Highland, 25 minutes by car from central Nagano and Zenko-ji. Four zip slides of over 150 m glide above Daizahoshi Pond; besides campground guests, it takes company training groups and schools.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetMatsumoto, NaganoFormer Kaichi SchoolA school building from 1876 (Meiji 9) that keeps its original appearance, a National Treasure. Its symbol is the carving of an angel and a dragon, combining Japanese-style and Western-style design; it is asymmetrical, and plaster is used to make stone-like patterns, so it differs from pure Western architecture. Inside, the corridors are wood, the walls plaster and the ceilings paper - traditional materials finished in a Western mood.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetYamanouchi, NaganoJigokudani Monkey ParkA facility for watching Japanese macaques in an environment close to nature, deep in the mountains. The monkeys are wild and not caged; the park gathers them by feeding, and some days they do not appear at all. Bathing in the hot spring is only one of their ways to survive the harsh winter cold - they are not in it all day, all year.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoJoyama ZooA free zoo in Joyama Park next to Zenko-ji, where you can meet sea lions, monkeys, penguins and other animals; there are also rides such as a monorail and a merry-go-round, and the surroundings are a cherry-blossom spot in spring.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoKagai Onsen IchiyokanA day-bathing hot spring with an indoor bath and a large mixed-gender open-air bath. The spring is iron-bearing sodium-calcium chloride.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoKagami-ike PondA quiet pond at 1,200 m that reflects the Togakushi mountains like a mirror in every season - fresh green in spring, cool breezes in summer, and above all the blazing autumn leaves. Morning is recommended to see the mountains reflected, and a path goes round the pond and connects to the Togakushi Forest Botanical Garden.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetMatsumoto, NaganoKamikochiA mountain scenic spot visited by 1.2 million people a year. The British missionary Weston introduced Kamikochi and the Hotaka and Yari peaks to the world in 1896, and it is a national place of scenic beauty and natural monument. Taisho Pond was formed when an eruption of Mt. Yake in June 1915 dammed the Azusa River. Kamikochi is a "car-less" resort: private cars cannot enter at any time of year.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoKawanakajima Battlefield ParkHachimanbara, where Takeda Shingen set up his headquarters in the Battles of Kawanakajima, is now open as a historic park, with a 12,000 m² mound-shaped lawn, a stream lined with natural stones and a thatched arbour. The city museum and the Hachiman shrine of the battlefield are next to it, and about 100 cherry trees bloom in spring.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoKitano Museum of ArtA museum centred on works by Yokoyama Taikan, Uemura Shoen and Shimomura Kanzan, with 500 Western paintings by artists such as Renoir, Chagall, Picasso and Utrillo in its collection. Next door is the Shinano branch of Tokyo's Yushima Tenmangu shrine.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoM-Wave (Nagano Olympic Memorial Arena)The arena used for speed skating at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and for the Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies. In summer it is a multi-purpose arena, and in winter an ice rink for international competitions and the public; its roof of repeated "M" shapes recalls the Shinshu mountains. The Nagano Olympic Museum inside is free.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetMatsumoto, NaganoMatsumoto CastleA National Treasure and the oldest surviving five-tier, six-storey wooden castle keep. Visiting the keep means using only its narrow, steep stairs (about 140 steps, up to about 61 degrees); it has no barrier-free alterations, so wheelchairs cannot go inside. The keep is lit up from sunset to 22:00 all year, and "omotenashi-tai" in costumes such as ninja greet visitors in the Honmaru garden from 8:30 to 16:00.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoNagano Prefectural Art MuseumA prefectural art museum in Joyama Park next to Zenko-ji, built on the concept of a "landscape museum" in harmony with the temple town and Shinshu's nature. Its free zones make it an "open museum" like a park, and the attached Higashiyama Kaii Gallery holds over 970 works by the Japanese-style painter Higashiyama Kaii.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetShiojiri, NaganoNarai-jukuCalled "Narai of a thousand houses", the busiest of the eleven Kiso post towns, before the Torii Pass, one of the hardest stretches of the Nakasendo. The townscape is a nationally selected preservation district for groups of traditional buildings, and the street of about 1 km along the Narai River is Japan's longest post town; people still live here. It was the setting of the 2011 NHK morning drama "Ohisama".Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoOkaidan-meguri (Zenko-ji)The entrance to the Okaidan is inside Zenko-ji's main hall, to the right of the statues of the three founders. Going down the stairs, after four or five steps you are in a pitch-dark corridor; with your right hand at waist height on the wooden wall, you shuffle forward step by step. Beneath the Ruri-dan is a key called the "key to paradise". It takes less than five minutes.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoOkususo-bana GorgeA gorge in Myoko-Togakushi Renzan National Park running about 5 km along the Susobana River above the Okususobana Dam, counted among Japan's 100 scenic views. It is especially fine in October, when beech, oak, maple and rowan turn red and yellow at once; there are the Okususobana Bridge, Japan's longest forest-road half-through Lohse bridge, the dam lake and Monju Falls.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoSanada Residence (Matsushiro)A residence that well preserves the look of a daimyo family's palace of the Edo period, built in 1864 (Genji 1) by Sanada Yukinori, 9th lord of the Matsushiro domain, as a retirement home for his mother; after the Meiji Restoration it was the Sanada family's private home, and in 1966 it was given to Nagano City with the family's treasures. Its Japanese garden, viewed from the rooms, shows the colours of each season.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoSoba-making at the Togakushi Soba MuseumMake Shinshu soba yourself and eat it freshly made: at the Togakushi Soba Museum "Tonkururin", soba masters guide you from the technique to the spirit of soba-making, and even beginners can make good soba.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoTogakushi Chibikko Ninja VillageAn amusement park themed on ninja in Togakushi, home of the Togakure-ryu ninja active in the Warring States period, with various facilities for children and adults alike.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoTogakushi Folk Museum and Ninja MuseumA restored Edo-period granary showing about 2,000 folk tools that supported life in Togakushi, with a waterwheel hut in the garden. Alongside is the Togakure-ryu Ninpo Museum, in a relocated all-zelkova farmhouse, displaying 500 ninja tools and about 200 photo panels; in the ninja trick house you find your way through a maze to the back room like a game, and there is a shuriken range.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoTogakushi RanchA ranch spreading over 135 ha at 1,200 m at the foot of Mt. Togakushi, where you can watch grazing dairy cows and horses and play with rabbits and goats in the petting zoo; horse riding is offered in summer.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoTogakushi Shrine ChushaTogakushi Shrine developed as a centre of mountain worship of Mt. Togakushi; once a temple with many pilgrim lodgings, since Meiji it has been revered as a shrine linked to the gods of the myth of opening the Heavenly Rock Cave, made up of five shrines: Okusha, Chusha, Hokosha, Kuzuryusha and Hinomikosha. Chusha enshrines Ame-no-Yagokoro-Omoikane-no-Mikoto, god of wisdom, and in its grounds are three cedars about 800 years old.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoTogakushi Shrine OkushaThe main shrine of Togakushi Shrine's five, standing against the wall-like Mt. Togakushi and enshrining Ame-no-Tajikarao-no-Mikoto, said to have opened the Heavenly Rock Cave with matchless strength. The approach is about 2 km; halfway is the red thatched Zuishin-mon gate, beyond which continues an avenue of cedars over about 400 years old, a natural monument.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoTogakushi Tenboen (Buckwheat Fields)Buckwheat flowers here are small, about 5-6 mm across, and white. Togakushi buckwheat is called "kirishita soba" (buckwheat under the mist), with a distinctive fragrant flavour.Official check: 26 Sept 2026
No photo yetNagano, NaganoZenko-ji TempleA temple said to have been founded about 1,400 years ago. The present main hall, rebuilt in 1707 in the mid-Edo period, is a wooden building about 24 m wide and 54 m deep in the "shumoku-zukuri" style unique to Zenko-ji, keeping alive the custom of many pilgrims spending the night in prayer; it was designated a National Treasure in 1953. Since the Heian period people have come from all over Japan to this temple, which saves people regardless of sect.Official check: 26 Sept 2026