Outdoor guide Daniel Moore gets a taste of deep mountain life on a drive around Minami Shinshu in southern Nagano Prefecture. On his way he stays in an abandoned old post town, hikes with a hunter, visits a master wood artisan, camps under a blanket of stars, shoots down the Tenryu River in a traditional boat and sips tea high up on a farmer couple's terraced slope.

Nagano Prefecture, surrounded by beautiful nature, has some of the longest life expectancies in all of Japan. What's behind this? Daniel Moore, an American tour guide living in Nagano, explores his adopted turf to discover the secrets to longevity in one of the country's snowiest regions.