Chubu region · the offbeat side of Nagano.
3 discoveries
A 1967 outdoor moving walkway hauls you up Mt. Yokote's summit for a sea-of-clouds view before 9am, then a crumpet cafe and Japan's highest bakery.
In a steaming mountain valley in Nagano, wild Japanese macaques climb down each winter to soak in a hot spring — the only place in the world where monkeys are known to bathe in an onsen of their own.
A hot-spring town below Shiga Kogen where overnight guests unlock nine separate wooden bathhouses with a single key and wander stone lanes in yukata after dark.
