Japan 2019 - Day 8

(More pics to be added when the crank the wifi speed again - apparently it hits a slow down about this time of night!)

Today was all about the castle. After being in town for three nights it was time to actually go and see the inside. Now the thing about castles is that some of them are an utter let down. Depending on what has been preserved inside or the state of repair/disrepair. Matsumoto Castle was not a letdown.

Part of the plan for the castle was to take Emily to a local shop where you can hire a kimono and dress her up so that she could wear it during our tour. Unfortunately in waiting until Tuesday so that the Museum would be open, we’d waited a day too long and the kimono hire shop turned out to be closed on Tuesdays. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

We passed through the gates of the castle and proceeded inside where we were required to take our shoes off, which isn’t unusual, but we weren’t provided with any alternative footwear. Other than the fact that it was about 2C it wasn’t really a problem. The interior of the castle was quite amazing, though most of the levels had been left open rather than with the screens that would have walled off certain portions of it into walls. It enabled you to see right through the floor level but not really comprehend what the layout would have been like when it was lived in. There was a significant firearms display throughout the castle that had been donated by a single collector. An impressive collection too!

The steps were steep and that’s where the lack of a kimono was a blessing. There was no way Emily would have been able to ascend or descend the stairs in a kimono, especially the flight near the top that were at about 61 degrees and about 30cm up for each step! Clearly they were built for defending from above rather than the convenience of those who actually had to use them nor to any modern building code.

It was quite a windy day and being cold, by the time that we’d reached the top floor, my feet had turned to ice. Not a comfortable feeling at the best of times and with the way my feet are currently it didn’t encourage you to hang around for too long.

We trekked back down the stairs and checked out the museum before setting out for our next ski-leg in Nozawa Onsen. That involved trains to Nagano (where we again lunched at Mi Do Ri (and replaced the backup cutlet)) and to Iiyama then a bus up to Nozawa Onsen.

First thing after checking in was hiring skis for the boys and with that tackled, we opted for dinner at a burger place that was about 15m from the door of the lodge because we were all pretty knackered. Other than them running out of chips (much to Emily’s disgust) it was tasty.

A quick visit to the onsen and we were ready to hit the sack ready for another tilt at skiing in the morning.

Oh and completely related to nothing, this is Caroline getting her very first vending machine hot chocolate!

Michael’s dumpling count = 101