Matsumoto

Last night was a little bit of luxury in a hotel in Matsumoto with in-house baths and fancy rooms and lounge. We all felt a bit scruffy lobbing in fresh from the snow in our hiking boots and carrying Henry's wet clothes in plastic bags. We got to do some washing and drying and the hotel staff put Henry's boots in their boiler room overnight to dry out.
After breakfast, one of the impeccably dressed hotel staff members also helped us to package and send the gumboots back to the ryokan at Jigokudani. We also wanted to send one of the kangaroo scrotum souvenirs as we thought Katsuyoshi might appreciate it. Russell asked the beautiful lady to help him write out the description in hirigana. It took her a while to work out the word he wanted (ie scrotum). When she realised she did a quick "Hail Mary" then wrote out the characters on a hotel notepad.
We then headed off to the Matsumoto castle. It is 6 floors of diminishing size and you can climb up from floor to floor via narrow wooden steps. It has been restored several times, but there has been a castle on that site (attended by a clan of warlords) from the 1500s. We imagined fully armoured samurai clanking through the wooden corridors and stairways.
This afternoon we were on the road again, to Kofu, then Otsuki on the shinkansen and finally a local train out to Kawaguchiko where we are spending tonight for the Fuji view. It was so exciting sitting on the rattly old local train as Fuji-san hoved into view behind the houses and shops, white snow cascading down her sides.Read more