Visit Ueda to make fireworks, cook up homemade soba noodles, explore the ruins of a samurai castle, and more! If you're planning a trip to Japan, don't miss a visit to this city in Nagano. It's an easy day trip from Tokyo with peaceful small-town vibes, and a lot of fun you'll find nowhere else. It's also known for hosting part of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, and being the setting of the popular anime film Summer Wars! On our trip, we visited one of the most unusual museum's we've ever seen, called "Bee Heaven" (蜂天国)! The only bee, wasp, and hornet museum of its kind in the whole world, Bee Heaven is home to a collection of about 600 enormous hives made by the Japanese yellow hornet, with "hive art" of all shapes and sizes, attached to all sorts of interesting objects.