Report - things to do in my hometown: Suwa, Nagano prefecture

Suwa lake firework Festival (Photo credit: Kurosawa Michiyo)

1. Festivals in Suwa

Summer Season: The majority of festivals are held in the summer. You can enjoy fireworks around Suwa Lake in August, every evening at 8pm. In additiona, many "Bon Odori" and "Ofune" festivals related with Suwa Lake are held.
Winter Season: Suwa Lake is frozen in January and February. The frozen lake blessing is broadcast on the news as "God`s walking on the Lake".

2. Onsens everywhere

There are onsens (public baths) which tend to be a bit cheaper than the majority of the high range hotels.

3. Suwa Lake

There are many options if you want to go fishing, boating and walking. While enjoying the outdoors, you can nearly always feel a nice, peaceful wind.

English: Lake Suwa, Suwa, Nagano prefecture, Japan  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Eating out sight-seeing

Most traditional food restaurants are open near Suwa Lake. Generally speaking, some traditional food is cooked with very unique materials, such as bee larva etc. For your experience, we recommend trying to eat them. If you want to see a beautiful sight, why not visit "Kirigamine kogen". It takes one hour by car from Suwa station.

Posted by Yumi

Matsumoto information - food

19th June

Dear Hannah,
It's great that you're coming to Matsumoto. It's a lot smaller than London, and it's cleaner than Tokyo. It's in central Nagano, central Japan, about three hours from Tokyo. There are four seasons in Matsumoto, and typoons come in June. There are many famous foods in Matsumoto. For example, apples are the best harvest in Nagano, and Soba is very popular, and also Sake, bee larva and sanzokuyaki are very famous.

Mori soba by jetalone in Tokyo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Write soon, and please write letter if you have time.

Love,

Akiho