Ueda City, Nagano
Ueda City is located in the Chikuma River valley in the center of Honshu Island in the midst of 2,000 meter high beautiful mountains with plenty of wide open spaces and plush green forests. It is a relatively small city with a population of about 120,000 people.
With its excellent local ski resorts, the region is best known internationally for hosting the 1998 Winter Olympic games with the city of Nagano located only 40 km away. However, people still visit from all over to experience the hot springs (onsen) or its famous Anraku Temple, featuring an eight-sided, three-storied pagoda or the Jouraku Temple with an impressive stone tower.
Food cultivation is a major industry with the farming of apples, grapes, flowers and rice due to the agreeable climate and soil. In addition, the commercial consumer goods industry is quite sizable with over 2,000 businesses concentrating in this area.
In addition to the compulsory education schools in the area, there are several notable institutions of high education including Shinshu University, Nagano University, Uedas Womens Junior College and the Nagano Prefecture Engineering College.