Togakushi Shrine is not a single building but a complex of three shrines spread across the lower, middle, and upper precincts of a forested mountain about twenty kilometres northwest of Nagano city. The journey through the shrines is the point: a three-kilometre path through ancient cedar forest connects them, the trees reaching forty metres and over, their root systems carpeting the path. The upper shrine, Okusha, is the most dramatic — reached by a final approach lined with giant cryptomeria cedars and a stone torii gate. The area around the upper shrine holds several sub-shrines and the mountain views are excellent.
The middle shrine area contains the Togakushi Ninja Museum, which explores the history of the Togakushi school of ninjutsu, one of the two great ninja traditions in Japan. Whatever you may think of ninja tourism, the museum is genuinely informative about the actual practice of espionage in feudal Japan. Children enjoy the adjacent ninja training maze. The whole complex is accessible by bus from Nagano in about an hour; the most atmospheric option is the late afternoon when the light filters low through the cedar forest and most day-trippers have gone. The shrines are particularly beautiful under snow in winter and when the maples turn in October.