Nagano is a large prefecture – the fourth largest in the country - lying at the geographical centre of Japan. It is one few landlocked prefectures in Japan and dominated by mountains. Three separate mountain ranges – the Hida, Kiso and Akaishi Mountains – are often grouped together as the ‘Japanese Alps’ or separately as the North, Central and Southern Alps respectively. Among those ranges sit 13 of 20 peaks in Japan of over 3000 metres (9842 ft), with many more major mountains of 2000 metres (6562 ft) and above. Nagano boasts multiple national parks including Chubu Sangaku, Minami Alps, Myoko-Togakushi Renzan, Joshinetsu Kogen and Chichibu-Tama Kai. In total, these national parks account for around 40% of Nagano’s landmass, an impressive statistic when contrasted to less than 6% of the total Japanese landmass.

Host of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games, Nagano is known for its big snow and world-class skiing and snowboarding. It boasts the most ski resorts of any prefecture in Japan and is blessed with the deep, dry powder that falls in the northern areas of the prefecture. Despite the central and southern areas of this large prefecture receiving little or no snow, the overall average is still the fifth highest of any prefecture in Japan – testament to the huge amount that falls in the north, in and around the North Alps / Chubu Sangaku National Park along with Myoko-Togakushi Renzan National Park and Joshinetsu Kogen National Park. Though landlocked, these areas are relatively close to the north coast - from where the winter snowfronts blow in - and experience similar heavy snowfall to bordering Niigata Prefecture. Given this disparity in snow fall, the entire prefecture is not classified as snow country however the northern areas of Nagano certainly are and it is here you will find the popular ski resorts of Hakuba Valley, Nozawa Onsen, Madarao, Shiga Kogen – Japan’s largest and highest ski resort – and many, many others