Everything you need to know about visiting Chino City in Nagano, Japan. Things to do, where to stay, where to eat and plenty more tips in our ultimate travel guide!
On our last trip to Japan, we planned to visit the city of Chino, in the Nagano prefecture.
Nagano is one of Japan’s only landlocked prefectures, located in the centre of Honshu island, and is known for its glorious mountain ranges.
We had heard a bit about it, but an interesting thing came up when we talked to locals about it.
It appeared as though almost nobody had heard of it.
“Are you sure it’s called Chino?” they would say as we announced our travel itinerary to them.
Even after saying it was in the Nagano prefecture, only a handful of people would then seem to know where we were talking about.
We started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves in for.
Luckily when we finally arrived at the quaint city of Chino, our doubts were immediately removed as we found stunning shrines, spectacular mountains and friendly locals.
READ MORE: If you’re planning a trip to the country, you have to read our comprehensive guide to travelling in Japan.
Home to about 55,000 people, Chino City doesn’t usually make it onto a standard Japan itinerary for new travellers.
But being our second visit to the country, we were excited to explore somewhere new, especially as we were there in winter.
And seeing Chino’s vast mountains covered in snow was something we were very excited for.
We ended up having a wonderful two days exploring Chino City, and highly recommend it for anybody looking for an off-the-beaten-path adventure in Japan.
We’ve put together this Chino, Nagano travel guide to help you with your own plans to visit. Enjoy!
The Best Things to do in Chino City, Nagano
Here are just some of the amazing things to do in Chino City.
Cooking with the Village Grandmas
If you love doing cooking classes when you travel, then this is the perfect Chino City activity for you!
Two local grandmas in a small, traditional village just outside of downtown Chino have come together to create a fantastic product – ‘Cooking with the Grannies’.
Yoko and her good friend Masako welcome guests into Yoko’s home to teach them how to cook a variety of local dishes.
From the moment we walked in the door we were put to work. They had prepared a few different meals for us to make, even being happy to cater to us as vegetarians.
We spent about two…
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