The best things to do in Matsumoto are the keep of Matsumoto Castle, the Former Kaichi School, the storehouses of Nakamachi, the frog lane of Nawate and the Yayoi Kusama rooms at the City Museum of Art. All five sit within a 20-minute walk of the station. Give it two days, and spend the second in Kamikochi between late April and mid-November.
Matsumoto keeps one of the twelve castle keeps in Japan that survived the Meiji demolitions, and the town grew up around it on clear Alpine spring water. It is also the gateway to Kamikochi, which sits inside the same city limits.
The keep went up in 1593 and 1594 and is one of only five castles designated a National Treasure: five tiers outside, six floors inside, walls lacquered black. Go at opening, before the queue for the near-vertical stairs builds.
Local carpenter Tateishi Kiyoshige built it in 1876 in his idea of a Western school, and in 2019 it became the first school building named a National Treasure. It reopened in November 2024 after seismic work.
A merchant street on the old Zenkoji road, lined with kura storehouses whose black-and-white namako walls were built against fire. Most now hold craft shops, cafes and a brewery tap room. Walk it twice: once to look, once to buy.
A 200-metre lane between the Metoba River and the castle's old south moat, grown up as the approach to Yohashira Shrine after 1879. The frogs honour the kajika frogs the river lost to a 1959 flood. Buy taiyaki here.
Kusama was born in Matsumoto, and this museum holds the collection that tracks her from early work to the polka-dot rooms. The building wears her dots outside and her flower sculpture stands at the door.
The Sakai merchant family began collecting woodblock prints in the Edo period and opened this museum in 1982. The holding runs to about 100,000 works, so the display turns over every couple of months.
The wooden Former Matsumoto High School, built around 1920 and now an Important Cultural Property, stands in a park of Himalayan cedars. Inside is a memorial hall to the old elite high schools. The Craft Fair fills the lawn every May.
Snowmelt from the Alps surfaces across the old town in public wells, and the city maps three walking routes between them. Genchi is the famous one, once the water source for the castle town's sake brewers.
A hot spring town on the city's north-east edge, about 25 minutes by bus from the station. Hot Plaza Asama is the city-run bath, with an open-air pool and sauna, and a free footbath outside for anyone not undressing.
An Alpine valley inside Matsumoto's own city limits, open from late April to mid-November and closed to private cars. Take the Kamikochi Line train to Shin-Shimashima, then the bus for about an hour.
Opened in 1956 beside an 1868 inn, still furnished in Matsumoto folk-craft chairs. Order the pudding.
A Matsumoto sake brewery with a shop and tasting counter near Shimo-Shin Station.
Ice carvings across the castle park and downtown over a late-January weekend.
The castle grounds open after dark under lit cherry trees for about a week in early April.
About 300 makers, chosen from over 1,000 applicants, on the Agata no Mori lawn at the end of May.
Eighteen neighbourhood floats are hauled to Fukashi Shrine on 24 and 25 July.
Teams dance through downtown on the first Saturday of August.
Noh by firelight in front of the castle, held on 8 August.
Classical music from mid-August into September; 16 August to 2 September in 2026.
Townspeople drag burning straw torches uphill to Misha Shrine in October.
A small domestic airport with flights to Sapporo, Fukuoka and Kobe. The bus to Matsumoto Bus Terminal takes about 30 minutes.
The Azusa reaches Matsumoto from Shinjuku in about 2 hours 40 minutes; the Shinano from Nagoya in about 2 hours. Both run roughly hourly.
Three loop lines: North for the castle and Kaichi School, East for Nakamachi and Agata no Mori, South for the suburbs. Cards accepted.
Buckwheat noodles from the highlands, served cold on a bamboo tray.
A whole chicken thigh, marinated in garlic and soy, then deep-fried.
Raw horse meat, sliced thin and eaten with ginger and soy.
Horse meat simmered in a miso hot pot. A winter dish.
Wheat dumplings filled with vegetables, then griddled or steamed.
Pickled Nagano leaf greens, served with almost every meal.
Fresh root from the spring-fed farms north of town, grated at the table.
Fish-shaped cakes filled with red bean, sold hot on Nawate Street.
Get our one-page Matsumoto cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday.
Japan
