Chubu, Japan · City
One of Japan's best-preserved original castles, with its distinctive black facade, plus a museum dedicated to Yayoi Kusama.
Train — Direct train from Nagoya or Tokyo
An original castle with a black facade, one of the oldest in Japan.
The local trio: horse sashimi, a huge garlic-fried chicken thigh known as 'bandit style', and the region's soba, sometimes served in a hot pot.
The largest wasabi plantation in Japan, with channels of exceptionally clear water where Kurosawa shot a scene from 'Dreams'; there is even wasabi ice cream to try.
Matsumoto is Yayoi Kusama's home city: the museum has a permanent room and a floral sculpture of hers at the entrance, and buses and vending machines covered in polka dots circulate around the centre.
Flat lanes between irrigation channels, rice paddies and farms with the Northern Alps always in the background, in the valley next to the city.
Matsumoto was one of the centres of the mingei movement; the museum brings together handmade ceramics, textiles and everyday objects from all over Japan.
The private collection of a merchant family, with some 100,000 prints: the largest in the world, on the outskirts of the city.
Includes works by Yayoi Kusama, who was born in the city.
One of Japan's largest craft fairs, held in late May at Agata no Mori Park with hundreds of artisans from across the country.
Matsumoto furniture is among the most prized in Japan, and embroidered temari thread balls are the city's folk craft; there are workshops and shops in the storehouse district.
A bus up to 2,700 metres along one of the highest roads in Japan (closed to private cars), with trails and waterfalls on the plateau.
An 1876 school building designated a National Treasure, a pioneering example of hybrid Western-Japanese architecture from the Meiji era.
The city is studded with fountains and wells of drinkable mountain water, free and signposted along a route: residents come to fill their bottles.
Several sake breweries use water coming down from the Northern Alps, and the city also has its own brewery and bars in the centre.
Between August and September, one of the world's great classical music festivals, with the Saito Kinen orchestra; tickets sell out months in advance.
Within the same municipality but already up in the mountains: milky sulphurous water with open-air baths beside the river and ryokan of deep tradition.
The city's team has one of the loudest followings in Japanese football for its division, at a stadium on the outskirts.
On the second weekend of January, a fair of Edo origin fills the streets with stalls of traditional sweets and daruma dolls.
In autumn the apple and Shine Muscat grape orchards open on the slopes east of the city.
A hot spring district on the outskirts of Matsumoto with over a thousand years of history, featuring public baths and traditional ryokan.
Glass studios in the neighbouring valley, with demonstrations and sessions for blowing a piece of your own.
Off the tourist routes, it keeps as its gate a karamon that was a National Treasure, brought from Zenko-ji Temple in Nagano.
A shrine dedicated to a god of seafarers deep in the mountains, the valley seat of the small shrine inside Kamikochi.
A free public park on the hill, with a long summer slide, a play area and a small zoo.
On the first Saturday of August thousands of residents dance through the centre; that same month noh theatre is performed by torchlight in the castle moat.
White-walled warehouses converted into craft shops and cafes.
A shopping street along the river with craft shops and cafes.
A 2004 building with a rippling glass facade, the work of Toyo Ito, and home of the city's great classical music festival.
A plateau at nearly 2,000 metres of altitude with meadows, grazing cattle, and Japan's largest open-air sculpture museum, with views of the Alps.
The manga and anime 'Orange' takes place in Matsumoto: Yohashira Shrine, Nawate and the hill park appear exactly as they are.
A small shrine next to the castle, a quick stop on the way downtown.
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