I’m very interested in this too! I went to Japan and a leg of my trip was to visit the Snow monkeys. I have never been as charmed by a place as I was Nagano. It

I’m very interested in this too! I went to Japan and a leg of my trip was to visit the Snow monkeys. I have never been as charmed by a place as I was Nagano. It’s probably because it reminds me so much of where I grew up in the California foothills, but I have an exceptionally vivid memory of walking along the Chikuma river and just being in awe of how peaceful it was. For reference, I went during the peak of the cherry blosom season, and even though it’s a ‘tourist spot’, it seems like it’s out of the way enough that it wasn’t very busy, we only saw a handful of people. The train ride in was beautiful—no Shinkansen tho. The monkeys (which you take a bus to a hike to get too) were cute too! Highly recommended if you don’t find something better.