Nagano Prefecture Trips & Tours

Ringed by the Japanese Alps and just 80 minutes from Tokyo by shinkansen, Nagano feels like a different Japan entirely. This is where soba-kiri was thought up, the 1,400-year-old Zenkoji Temple welcomes pilgrims into a pitch-black underground passage to touch the 'Key of Enlightenment', and macaques bathe in steaming onsen pools. The black-walled Matsumoto Castle – Japan's oldest surviving five-tiered tower – anchors a cultured city of craft storehouses and mineral springs, while up in Togakushi, soba restaurants serve noodles in five neat bundles on handmade bamboo trays, one for each sacred shrine in the forest above. Winter brings world-class skiing and spring sees cherry blossoms against castle backdrops. But in the end, Nagano's real draw is the depth that is behind every spectacle…