Matsumoto castle

Today is a public holiday in Japan - Respect for the aged day! I was going to make a funny remark, but most of my family and friends, and if I'm honest, myself fall into this category 😄 We should get day a off in Australia to celebrate those that no longer work - how Aussie would that be?

We decided that we should take a local train to Matsumoto to check out the castle. It's one of the oldest surviving original castles in Japan, built in the 16th century.

We got off the train, and a loop bus took us right to the castle gates, very organised. There was a gathering of people on the grounds, with tents and food stalls - we'd stumbled upon a craft beer festival with a castle backdrop, pretty convenient 😀

We took a heap of photos and stopped for a bite to eat.
There was a long wait, over an hour, to get inside the castle, so we decided against it.

We walked around the town on our way back to the station, and we really liked the place. There seemed to be a lot of good pubs and restaurants and the place had a friendly atmosphere.

We took the express train back to Nagano, about an hour ride. We'll get our bags packed and ready for tomorrow's shinkansen to Kanazawa.

We needed a cocktail at the end of the day, so I located a rooftop bar at the Metropolitan Hotel. The view was great, and the cocktails were better!Read more