Page 174 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

t North of Matsumoto, Hotaka DOSOJIN STONES
is home to Japan’s largest
Matsumoto wasabi (horse radish) farm. These two jaunty stone
松本 figures are guardian
Matsumoto Castle
! E4 ⌂ Nagano Prefecture " ⌂ 20-min walk from deities of travelers.
k £ n At Matsumoto JR They are found at
Stn; www.visitmatsumoto. Stn § (0263) 32-2902 many roadsides in
com/en # 8:30am–4:30pm daily northern Nagano
Prefecture, as well as at
EXPERIENCE Central Honshu main attraction is Matsumoto § (0263) 47-4440 # 10am– holding hands.
Japan Ukiyo-e Museum
Despite being the gateway to
village boundaries. The
the Japanese Alps, this city’s
pair are often depicted
" ⌂ 7-min drive from Stn
Castle. It has the oldest five-
5pm Tue–Sun
tiered keep in Japan (1593)
Matsumoto Folkcraft
and its walls and moat date
Museum
from 1504. Defensive devices
" ⌂ 15 mins by bus from
include niches for archers,
guns, and dropping stones.
§ (0263) 33-1569 # 9am–
The top floor holds a shrine to
the goddess of the 26th night
5pm Tue–Sun
who was thought to protect Stn, Mingeikan-mae stop
against fire and invasion.
Beside the keep stands the y
Moon-Viewing Turret, added
in the 1630s for aesthetic Nagano
pur poses. The castle admis- 長野
sion includes entry to the ! E4 ⌂ Nagano Prefecture hidden, and a copy shown
Matsumoto City Museum in £ n At Nagano JR Stn; every six years. The temple
the grounds, which features also has a pitch-dark under-
local geography, wild life, www.go-nagano.net ground passage containing a
history, dolls, and tools. Surrounded by low mountains, “key to paradise”: touching the
Also in Matsumoto are the Nagano is a skiing center and key, positioned on the right-
Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, an was the main venue for the hand wall, is said to bring
excel lent collection of wood- 1998 Winter Olympics. In the happiness in the afterlife.
block prints, and Matsumoto town, the prime attraction is In nearby Obuse, the
Folkcraft Museum, with folk Zenko-ji, a non-sect temple Hokusai Museum is devoted
art from Japan and across that has, unusually, always to artist Katsushika Hokusai
Asia; on the edge of the been open to women as well (1760–1849), who stayed in the
city, Utsukushigahara as men. Established in 670, it town as an old man. Farther
and Asama have enshrines what is thought to into the mountains Jigokudani
pleasant hot be Japan’s oldest Buddhist Monkey Park, reached by bus
springs. image, an Amida triad brought from Kanbayashi onsen, is
from Korea in the 6th famous for the wild macaques
century. This is kept living around its hot pools.

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