Official Travel Guide of Shinanomachi, Nagano

The northern part of the Nagano area still has plenty of snow, but the sun is gradually getting longer and spring is approaching day by day. From April to May, the trees and flowers that have endured the cold air during the winter have begun to bud, and the beautiful season for the collaboration of the remaining snow on the mountain and the fresh greenery is coming soon. Because of the area covered with deep snow, the arrival of spring brings extra joy. There are plenty of pleasures in the spring of Shinano town, such as picking wild vegetables, hiking in fresh greenery and cycling. Why don’t you go out to pick wild edible plants? Shinano town, surrounded by beautiful …

Which destination do you think of for skiing and snowboarding trips in Japan? There are many world-renowned snow resorts in Japan, such as Niseko in Hokkaido and Hakuba in Nagano Prefecture. Shinano town, located on the border between Niigata and Nagano prefectures, is blessed with heavy snowfall every year. Because the town is located just 50 km from the Sea of ​​Japan, where the cold northern wind contained lots of humidity from the ocean first hits the mountains above 2,000 m high. Therefore many ski resorts dotted in the variety of mountains in the area, attract skiers and snowboarders from all over the world. Here are the winter charms of Shinano town loved by powder snow freaks. Ski resorts in …

Shinano town, which designated as a special heavy snowfall area, is covered with deep snow every winter. In the mountains and forests that spread throughout the town, bamboos and shrub bushes are all hidden under snow. Then, the forests and plateaus in the town turn into the vast snowshoe fields. This time, we will show you the fun of  snowshoeing in Shinano’s winter. What is snowshoeing? Snowshoe is a tool for walking on deep snow. Japan has long used Japanese style snowshoes called “Kanjiki” woven with bamboo or wood during the snow season. Western style snowshoes, on the other hand, have high buoyancy and are suitable for walking on deep snow. Even for the people using it for the first …

What is Nojiriko hominin? Were there humans in Japan 40,000 years ago? Approaching the mystery that affects Japanese history …! Q. Did people definitely exist here at that time? A. That is the biggest matter. Some think it is true, while others think they hadn’t come from the continent yet. If there were no humans yet, what were these stone tools found here? What are these if not stone tools? However, some people say that a certain part may not be stone tools, actually there is no consensus yet. Some people think that even the bone tools are not. Although, researchers in overseas almost recognize it as bone tools. Because similar things have been found a lot in overseas. Q. Is there a …

Lake Nojiri, located in Shinano town, Nagano Prefecture, is famous as an excavation site of fossils of Naumann elephant. This time, we interviewed with Mr. Kondo, director of the Lake Nojiri Naumann Elephant Museum, and were able to hear about a wide variety of topics, including excavation of Lake Nojiri and global climate change. Let’s learn about the environment issue and our future through Naumann Elephant! What is Naumann Elephant？ Naumann elephants used to live in Japan until about tens of thousands of years ago. The fossil of Naumann’s elephant was first discovered in Yokosuka in the early Meiji era. It was named after Dr. Edmond Naumann, a German who was the first professor of geology at Tokyo Imperial University, …