The Shimosuwa Konjikan Oideya is a local tourism hub where you can experience the history of Shimosuwa. The exchange space on the first floor is admission free and offers information on tourist destinations and events in the town. Other facilities available here include a footbath, rental bicycles, and a phone charging station, making it a great base to start out on your walk.
The Gizodo clock workshop in the facility is a museum on time and clocks and includes a clockmaking workshop here in Suwa, the home to traditional clockmaking in Japan. There is also an exhibit of the world’s first replica of the Suiun Gishodai, the origin of mechanical clocks. You can also join a clockmaking workshop to create your own original watch or clock.
Meanwhile, the Hoshigato Museum Yanoneya, also contained in the same facility, displays a variety of archeological relics uncovered in Shimosuwa, such as obsidian from the ruins of the Hoshigato obsidian mine designated as a national historic site.

Next, why not take a walk around the town and dine at one of the restaurants that piques your interest, including everything from upscale eateries to relaxing traditional Japanese fare.
Also take a look at the detailed page at the back that lists some of the restaurants we recommend.

The Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya Shrine is located right at the crossroads of the ancient Nakasendo and Koshu Kaido highways. It is situated close to the center of Shimosuwa, the only post town on the Nakasendo highway boasting a natural hot spring, so you will even find hot spring waters flowing at the hand washing stand, used for spiritual purification before worship, on the grounds of the shrine. The impressive carvings found in the main hall of the shrine are the work of Tatekawa Washiro Tomimune, a master carver from the mid Edo period, including the work Crane on Bamboo, which is considered to be his greatest masterpiece.
Facing the main hall, you will find at the left side the Koyasusha shrine, where Koshinonuna Kawa-Hime no Kami is enshrined, a Shinto goddess deeply connected to the lives of women as the goddess of fertility, safe childbirth, and child-raising. The Koyasusha shrine has been popular for a long time. The shrine features many other highlights worth a visit, such as the three-way gabled Kagura hall adorned with a large Shimenawa straw rope, the Neiri-no-sugi Japanese cyprus tree dated at approximately 800 years old, and a bronze Komainu guardian dog statue said to be the largest of its class in Japan. Both the main hall and the Kagura hall are designated as important cultural properties by the national government.

Located next to the Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya Shrine, Shintsuru-Honten is a venerable purveyor of Japanese confections founded in the 6th year of the Meiji period (1873).
They are best known for their Shintsuru Shio-Yokan, a jelly-like confection made with sweetened azuki beans, salt, and other ingredients, which they have offered since their founding. Considered the taste of Suwa, it is an experience you will not soon forget. Production follows the same methods carefully maintained since the very beginning. Only the best azuki beans grown in Tokachi, Hokkaido are selected for their plumpness and shine and combined with natural agar, a famous product of nearby Chino City, and kneaded together by hand over a wood fire.
They also offer a variety of other seasonal Japanese confections that are equally appealing. Enjoy an enriching and entertaining moment selecting your purchases in the traditional storefront that echoes the atmosphere of the old post town.

Shimosuwa has long offered respite to refresh countless tired travelers as a post town with its own hot springs. And the hospitality with which those visitors were greeted, and the aesthetics of the traditional hot spring town, can still be seen today.

The Shukuba Kaido Museum teaches visitors about the services and appearance of Shimosuwa, which prospered as a post town at the crossroads of the Nakasendo and Koshu Kaido highways during the Edo Period, as well as incidents which occurred here towards the end of the Shogunate.
The building that houses the museum was built here in the 7th year of the Meiji period (1874) after a major fire burned the surroundings to ashes, but it still represents a fine example of a merchant’s home from the Edo period.
The first floor of the museum serves as a free space for travelers to rest, and as a space for exhibits and lectures for the local community.
The exhibit hall on the second floor presents images and tools from the period about Shimosuwa post town during the Edo Period and people who passed through it, along with materials on the incidents which occurred towards the end of the Shogunate.

The Suwanone Museum is a museum where you can learn about, listen to, create, and purchase music boxes, a place where the exquisite craftsmanship of Suwa is shared with the world.
Come here to enjoy the fun of making things, the appeals of Suwa, and to hear the captivating and beautifully refined sounds. The music box store on the 1st floor is open free of charge, as is the open terrace cafe.

See the detailed page at the back for our recommended lunch spots.

The Sugeno Hot Spring, which accepts daytime walk-in bathers, offers a traditional interior dating from its founding in the 19th year of Meiji (1886) and an oval hot spring bath where you can relax to your heart’s content. Located near the center of town, a visit through the arcade makes you feel as though you’ve slipped backwards in time to the age of public bath houses. The hot spring water, at 42 to 43 degrees Celsius (107 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit), somewhat lower in temperature than other hot springs in Shimosuwa, is said to be beneficial for those with arteriosclerosis, cuts, burns, and chronic skin diseases.
There are many other day-trip hot springs we recommend, so check out the detailed page at the back for more information.

The Shokusai-kan boasts the greatest floor space and largest selection of gifts of any gift shop in the Shimosuwa area. Their lineup includes everything from standard souvenirs to such top items in popularity as Wakasagi Tsukudani and Karaage, two types of fried fish dishes (Wakasagi is the Japanese name for Hypomesus nipponensis, a fish similar to in appearance to the delta smelt).
In addition to shopping, this combined tourism facility also offers a restaurant and a footbath where you can relax.