Audio walking guides in Matsumoto
Photo: lumoplank · CC0
These are self-guided audio walks around Matsumoto. You pick a route, put one earbud in, and the guide talks you through it stop by stop — what you are looking at, and why it is there. There is no group to keep up with and no meeting time. 10 walks covering The Black Castle, Kaichi School, Nakamachi and the Frog Road, The Springs Under the City, Yayoi Kusama's Home Town, The Festival Seiji Ozawa Built, Mingei, Azumino and more, 288 minutes of narration in total.
Start your free guideA free account is needed before a guide plays. Hear a minute first if you would rather try it than sign up for it.
Every walk in Matsumoto
The Black Castle
Walk round to the far side of the inner moat and stop. In front of you is a broad rectangle of still water, and rising directly out of…
Kaichi School: The Building That Guessed at the West
Stand in front of this and try to name the style. There is a central entrance with an octagonal tower above it, capped with a small dome and…
Nakamachi and the Frog Road
Nakamachi is a street of white buildings, and the pattern on them is the thing to look at first. The lower part of many walls is covered in…
The Springs Under the City
On street corners around central Matsumoto there are wells. Not decorative wellheads — working ones, with water running continuously out of a spout into a stone basin, usually…
Yayoi Kusama's Home Town
Outside the museum there is a sculpture of enormous flowers — bright, cartoonish, covered in polka dots, several metres high — and even the vending machines nearby are…
The Festival Seiji Ozawa Built
Every summer, for a few weeks, this town hosts an orchestra that does not otherwise exist. Its members are principal players and section leaders from major orchestras across…
Mingei: The Beauty of Ordinary Things
The word is mingei, and it was coined in the 1920s by a philosopher named Yanagi Sōetsu. It combines the characters for ordinary people and for craft, and…
Azumino: The Wasabi Plain
What you are looking at does not look like farming. Long shallow channels of clear running water, floored with gravel, stretching away in parallel lines across the flat,…
Utsukushigahara: Sculpture on a Grass Plateau
The road up is a series of switchbacks, and then it levels and you come out onto something you do not expect in Japan: open, rolling, treeless grassland…
Soba, Miso and Horse: Eating in Shinshū
Shinshū is the old name for this province — modern Nagano — and it is still what people call the region and its food. It is landlocked, mountainous,…
Questions about walking Matsumoto
What is the best self-guided walking tour in Matsumoto?
It depends how long you have. The Black Castle (32 minutes, 6 stops) starts at Matsumoto Castle, black gate and is the one most people begin with. Kaichi School: The Building That Guessed at the West covers a different part of the city in about 27 minutes. All 10 walks in Matsumoto are listed on this page with their length and starting point.
Do I need to book a walking tour in Matsumoto?
No. Every wanderaudio walk is self-guided, so there is nothing to book and no departure time. You start whenever you arrive, and you can stop halfway and pick it up the next day.
How much do the Matsumoto audio guides cost?
Your first guide is free. You make a free account before it plays, with an email address or a Google login, and no card. After that a single guide is $4.99, a 30-guide pass, spendable on any guides in any cities, is $29.99, and every guide in Japan is $59.99. It is a one-off payment, not a subscription.
Are these tours in English?
Yes, all 10 Matsumoto walks are narrated in English. Other languages are not available yet.
Can I do these walks alone?
Yes — that is what they are built for. There is no group and no guide waiting for you, so walking alone works exactly the same as walking with someone. You choose the pace and the order.