The Chubu Sangaku National Park, one of the prominent mountain parks in Japan, is located in the western part of Nagano-Prefecture, where the 18th Winter Olympic Games had been held.

This mountain region, stretches almost in the center part of the Honshu Island, is broadly known for its splendid landscape with a series of rocky mountains including 3,190 meter Oku-Hotakadake. During 1890s, Walter Weston, a missionary from England, introduced the area to the world as "the Alps of Japan". And Kamikochi, the highland plain extended at the foot of the mountains, is amazingly rich with the beauties of nature; the deep green forests, the exquisite mountain flowers, and the Azusa River of which crystal clear flows are of thawing snow from the surrounding mountains. Such a great harmony of nature has been admired as the symbolic beauty of Japan. Its breathtaking view, once marveled by Walter Weston, is also attracting so many nature lovers of the present day.