We had to start the day early to make it to Shinjuku Station in time for our 8am train to Matsumoto. Shinjuku is basically the other side of town from Hamamatsucho and our way there is the Yamanote line for about 1/2 hour ride. Also I was not familiar enough with Shinjuku Station to know intuitively where to go to catch our train. For that reason we met downstairs to eat a quick breakfast as they opened it up at 7am. We ate quickly and were on the Yamanote line by 7:20 including the walk and wait for the next train. The ride got us there at about 7:45 and I was able to catch that we needed the Chuo Line (rapid express) for our train and we were up and on the track just as they opened up the train about 10 minutes before departure. They apparently start the train from Shinjuku and end it at Matsumoto. They guy that got us the tickets the day before was obviously intimately familiar with this and we thought he was telling us the earliest train we could get there was at 10:37 but that is when the 8:00am train arrives in Matsumoto.
The train ride was basically pleasant except at the very earliest they had the heat blasting because it was still below 10C before we left. I actually liked how cool it was out but the train was blazing hot. The trip is very scenic into the mountains towards Nagano in which prefecture Matsumoto is situated. Along the way we got a couple glimpses of Fuji and there were a few spurts of clouds but the weather was mostly blue skies except on the peaks of the various mountains we were passing through. Matsumoto is to the north of Tokyo and obviously higher in altitude. It is situated in amongt what they call the Alps here in Japan.
Upon arriving in town we found the Tourist Information booth and got the map and the basic explanation to see the castle and two historical shopping streets. We then found the newsstand/convenience store in the station and I bought a cherry blossom flavored Kit Kat which I ate presently and it was very enjoyable. After the shop we made our way down the 15 minute walk to the castle. Basically the castle is the main reason a tourist will visit Matsumoto. It is one of the 4 national treasure castles that has never been destroyed since it was built. Matsumoto was started in 1530 or so, so it has been around for a while. It is known informally as the black castle because of the black wall sections that make it seem more black than the traiditional white of most Japanese castles. The walk from the station is basically an L shape and it shows that the town must be very heavily a tourist town, probably most especially in summer. The streets and buildings were all clean and up to date long the the path to the castle.
The castle itself is very striking to see and with the moat and the sakura around it was a very pleasant picture to take as well. The weather we had was a little cool, but nicely so and almost completely clear skies. Matsumoto is surrounded by the alps on all sides basically and they also help to frame the castle and the city very nicely. We took a short walk through the grounds and hit the gift shop quickly before going into the castle itself. The castle is deceptive because it has the major and minor towers. The minor tower looks like it is 3 stories tall but it is actually 4 stories and the major tower is 6 though it only looks to be 5 stories from the outside. The castle is obviously not a few years old rebuild and it was very interesting. Many of the stairs were very steep and they apparently had to tie on bamboo handrails because it appears the castle was originally built without them. The stairs to the 5th floor were insanely steep and they had a fair distance between steps that looked like it caused a lot of trouble for the older Japanese there, especially going back down. The castle was very well preserved although on the 6th floor there was unfortunately a bit of grafitti carved into the wood. I was a touch disappointed with that. Of particular interest was the moon viewing room which is open air on 3 sides and the lord and his samurai used to sit and drink sake all night in it. It has a veranda/balcony on those 3 sides that they had blocked off with bamboo posts so you couldn't go out on them unfortunately.
I'd say it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to do the complete internal tour of the castle. We probably spent about 2 hours and a half or so including the photographic opportunities from all over the grounds. I took a ton of pictures of the castle from as many angles and ideas as I could. It appeared to be a very photogenic castle as a person standing there. Hopefully some of the pictures came out.
After the castle we walked back and found The Old Rock to eat lunch at. It was styled as a Brit Pub. I had a couple Super Dry Asahi pints and the fish and chips. The Brit beers were too expensive to actually consider buying. They gave us forks but I lamented the whole meal that there was no knife to be found so I had to cut the beer battered fish with the fork which wasn't ideal. The meal was very tasty but I did launch one piece off the table with the fork.
After lunch we walked the old shopping streets and poked around for more picture opportunities. There is obviously some sort of sigificance with frogs in Matsumoto but I don't know what it is. There were all sorts of frog statues and merchandise though. We bought ice cream at one of the vendors. The place had pictures and no flavor names in English. I bought one that looked like it was supposed to be red beans and was very enjoyable.
After the ice cream we walked back to the station and were just a few minutes early for our 15:47 train back to Shinjuku. A nice elderly Japanese woman tried to talk to us but we couldn't communicate across languages too well. I think she was commenting on the fact for a few minutes we had the front two cars of the train but not the rest. After a bit the rest did show up and we were able to board for the 2.5 hour ride back. From there we transferred right to the Yamanote line and headed right for Hamatsucho. That added another half hour. We got out at the north exit and visited the 7-11 so Ronni could pull out a little more cash then walked to Tengu for dinner. I had a sashimi plate that I supplemented with a stick of asparagus wrapped in pork strips and bacon wrapped scallops. I had two Tengu Special Beer Browns to accompany the meal. I followed up with ice cream with soy bean powder and brown sugar syrup.
After dinner I bought another couple beers and some snack across the street and came back to the room to have some of those and write this.
The pictures for Day 12 can be found here.
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