Today I went on a day trip to Nagano City from Matsumoto to see the Higashiyama Kai collection at Nagano Prefectural Art Museum.
By train, it takes one hour and a half to reach Nagano and you can buy a special discounted ticked for a round trip for 1500 JPY at the ticket machines of Matsumoto Station.

This time there were some works that the painter made in China on display.

Another work we saw was an installation that you can enjoy once an hour at the museum:

These are some of the pictures I took.

It’s always nice to visit this museum because after visiting the gallery you can enjoy the view from the terrace

I don’t go to Nagano City a lot from Matsumoto, because the general opinion seems to be that there is more to see in Matsumoto, however I saw some places I would like to go back to next time.

I think it can be an interesting day trip destination from Matsumoto!

In my opinion, there are many dishes you can try in Matsumoto, however Nagano is more limited in that regard.
I still enjoyed a tea break at a nice shop and got cake:

Unlike Matsumoto, Nagano is connected to Tokyo by a Shinkansen, so one option could be to come straight from Tokyo, spend a day and then move to Matsumoto with the fast train (one hour 3000 JPY ca.) in the evening.

Have you ever been to Nagano City?