Nagano is a city that most Japanese people associate with two things: the 1998 Winter Olympics and Zenkō-ji, the ancient Buddhist temple that has drawn pilgrims for fourteen centuries. Both are worth your attention, but the city offers considerably more than these famous names suggest. Set in the Nagano Basin ringed by mountains, at an altitude of around 370 metres, it is a clean, compact regional capital of about 370,000 people with a serious culinary culture built on soba noodles, mountain vegetables, and miso.
Zenkō-ji dominates the city both physically and spiritually. The temple complex climbs a long approachroad lined with shops and lodgings from the city centre; the main gate, pagoda, and great hall create one of the most dramatic temple approaches in Japan. Pilgrims come from across Japan to touch the Sacred Key hidden in a pitch-dark tunnel beneath the main hall — an act of faith practiced since the seventh century and still performed by thousands every day. The area around Matsushiro, a former castle town south of the city, holds the unsettling Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters, a vast tunnel complex dug by forced labour near the end of World War II as a planned relocation site for the Japanese government.
The city hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, and the venues survive in good condition: the M-Wave speed skating oval, the Big Hat ice arena, and the Aqua Wing aquatics centre. The surrounding mountains provided the alpine and nordic skiing venues and remain excellent ski resorts. Togakushi Shrine, a Shinto complex spread across three precincts deep in the mountains northwest of the city, is one of Nagano's most atmospheric destinations — a forested pilgrimage route leading through ancient cedar trees to shrines dedicated to the gods of arts, agriculture, and martial training.
Nagano makes a natural base for the surrounding Nagano Prefecture, which is among the most varied in Japan. Matsumoto with its famous castle is forty-five minutes by express train. The valley resort of Kamikōchi, one of Japan's finest mountain landscapes, is reachable in about two hours. The region's soba noodles are a serious culinary tradition — thin, nutty, and best eaten cold with a dipping sauce at one of the city's many specialist restaurants.