Mystical Suwa

A Guide to this Historical Area of Nagano

I’d like to welcome you back to yet another installment of my Japan area guides. As always, we’ll be going quite deep so that you, the reader, can get the maximum enjoyment out of what Japan has to offer. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at an often-neglected area of Nagano known as Suwa. While these days, the prefecture is becoming more and more popular with overseas visitors (thanks in no small part to the snow monkeys), the Suwa region is one that few tourists know. In my eyes, this is a real shame as Suwa boasts a historical pedigree that is as ancient as they come. In fact, as we’ll see in later sections, the area’s claim-to-fame, Suwa Taisha, is often considered to be the second oldest shrine in all of Japan. Suffice to say, if you’re into this sort of thing, Suwa certainly deserves consideration during your next visit.

On that note, before we get into the weeds here, let me first suggest that you get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and make yourself comfy. All of my area guides are quite verbose yet every now and then I sit down to write one that I just know is going to be exceptionally long. Of course, today’s piece is going to be just one such article. While I’ve done my best to distill things down to the pure essentials, there is just so much historical background to Suwa that is crucial to truly…