Togakushi

The approach tells you everything. Beyond a thatched gate, a two-kilometre avenue of cedars four centuries old leads uphill through forest so dense the sky thins to a strip, until the inner shrine appears against a wall of mountain. Below, in the trees, there is a ninja village — because of course there is. Togakushi has been keeping secrets since the gods were said to have hidden the sun here.

Togakushi is a highland of shrines in the mountains behind Nagano city, and the walk from the middle shrine to the inner Okusha takes about an hour through the forest. The great cedars along the Okusha approach are said to have been a gift from warlords after the area was laid waste in medieval wars, and Kagamiike pond mirrors the Togakushi range on the way. The area is famous as the training ground of the Togakure school of ninjutsu, and the Ninja House and Folk Museum preserve the trick doors and hidden passages along with the region's mountain life. Togakushi soba, made from buckwheat that thrives where rice never would, is counted among the best in Japan and served in small bundles on baskets woven from the mountain's own dwarf bamboo, which you can learn to weave yourself.