Saturday, April 19, 2014

Saturday 19th April 2014- Matsumoto is a great place to visit.

WE LIKE THIS PLACE…

But first, the Hotel in which we are staying is an older Hotel but has big rooms and a usable bathroom. The Hotel in Toyama had no room to even leave your toothbrush and toothpaste in let alone a bathroom bag kit.
Anyway, after our usual Muesli and banana breakfast and of course the usual cuppa, we walked down to the oldest castle in Japan and purchased our entry tickets and we were early which was very handy. The Castle Keep has extremely steep and short stairs and so Jennifer did the walk alone and entered the building within a minute or so of us arriving. Two minutes later hundreds of Japanese kids and tour groups descended on the place and there was a queue of about hundred yards long which has developed in minutes.
All the Cherry trees are out at the moment and it makes this little town look really nice. We have been lucky with the Cherry trees as we were just in time for Tokyo, on time for all the other places we have visited so how about that for luck.
We then walked down to the middle of town and on to the train station where we discovered you get a bus ticket for the day on three routes around town and so we did some of the routes. For lunch we visited the same place as we went yesterday, but somehow the service was rubbish and they messed up our and our neighbour’s food orders, most unusual.
We did a little more walking and then went back to the Hotel around 16.00 to do some planning about our route tomorrow and have a little rest before heading out in the dark for a photo shoot. In the Hotel there is a little café where tried their apple cake and a coffee before venturing out back to the castle and around the town to take some night photos. Some came out well and others did not, but that’s the name of the game.
Then back to the Hotel around 20.15 to load the photos and do this Blog. Tomorrow we leave en-route to Nikko and will stay overnight in a place called Maebashi where the only claim to fame is seen to be a large Costco store where we shall make a few purchases. We plan to stay on the regular roads and ignore the expressways as its much more interesting.