In pursuit of castles - Matsumoto castle (松本城)

My second day in Matsumoto began far too early as my alarm pierced the tranquillity of Sunday morning.  "No!" I thought, "I'm on holiday!".  So sacrificing breakfast I switched off the alarm rolled over and went back to sleep.

A couple of hours later I woke up as my alarm again made sure not only me, but the people in the rooms either side of me were awake.  After getting ready I set off for the castle, stopping at a nearby convenience store to grab a sandwich to take the place of my missed breakfast.  

Matsumoto castle is one of the more famous castles in Japan and is listed as a National Treasure of Japan.  It started it's existence in 1504 as a fort called Fukashi Castle.  It was a much smaller structure at that time.  Rule in the area changed hands in 1550 and Matsumoto Castle was built on the site.  It's construction was finished in 1594 and ownership was kept in the hands of the Feudal Lords from that point on.  At the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the feudal system was terminated and the castle was put up for auction.  Local residents began a campaign to save the castle and eventually the castle was acquired by the local government and has been maintained by them ever since.

Here's a little more info on the castle in a few different languages.  This sign is just outside the main gate of the castle.

I started around the other side of the castle from where I had stood the day before which provided me with a nice different view of the castle.

Being winter, and not a traditional holiday season, there were not too many people around, but there were a whole lot of pigeons

along with a couple of swans and some carp in the moat.

I continued walking around to the other side of the castle where the entrance to the castle is and suddenly had the distinct feeling that I was being followed so I turned around to take a look.....

Nope, no-one there.

Just before heading into the castle I took one last look around.  The view from this side was great, with the red bridge in the background and my 2 friends in the foreground.

Just through this gate I bought my ticket (610 yen, pretty reasonable!)

and finally, into the grounds.

What a winter wonderland it was inside, a blanket of white!

My path to the castle, however, was being blocked by a samurai.

I had not anticipated this and had come completely unprepared.  I had no idea that I would have to get past a samurai to reach the castle.  I waited until he was distracted and then made my move.....

Safe......

Up close, the castle was simply incredible and I lingered outside for a while just taking in it's beauty.

You can see in the above picture, small square and rectangular holes in wooden windows.  They are there for defence as this sign told me.

Interesting!!

One thing about Matsumoto castle is that it has lots of windows 

which is great as you can get a view of the stunning scenery outside, but if you visit in winter, like I did, dress real warm!!

Also, there are a lot of steep stairs to climb inside the castle

so unless you are a mountain goat or a Sherpa (of which I am neither), you really need to take great care climbing to the top of the castle, but once you get there, you are treated to  stunning views from windows on all 4 sides of the castle!

Also on the way up you there is a gun museum with a large collection of old guns

so if you are a into guns, you will enjoy these next few photos!

It is a very comprehensive collection that they have and all of the guns look in mint condition.

I made my way back down to the ground level again and back outside to be confronted with another danger.

I managed to out ninja the ninja and crept past without him noticing me....

I began to feel hungry and sought out a soba restaurant near the castle that had been recommended to me.  Nagano prefecture is famous for its soba as the water is very clear and pure in the area and I was keen to try it!  I found the restaurant nearby the castle entrance and luckily for me they had an English menu!

If a famous person walks into a restaurant in Japan the owners of the restaurant will quite often ask then to sign a card and write a short message on it.  This then gets placed on the wall as a sign of its quality to other diners and this restaurant had lots of them!

I went for a couple of the recommended dishes, trout sashimi

and soba with wasabi and local mountain herbs.

Now I am not a soba expert and I can't tell the difference between soba from Nagano and soba from somewhere else, but this soba was good!

Satisfied I left the restaurant and said goodbye to Matsumoto castle.  There was one other area of the city I wanted to check out before I returned to the hotel.  It on the other side of the station and had been recommended by a local business owner on a website I had seen.  I walked off and following my trusty English map, soon found Fukashi Shrine.

It was the area around the shrine that I wanted to check out so I continued exploring.  

This area of town was a really nice old residential area and I got quite a few confused looks from people as I wandered around.  I'm sure they thought that I must have been lost!

Nice!!

I walked back towards the hotel and power napped for an hour.  Lunch had well and truly settled by this time so I walked to a little neighbourhood restaurant I had heard about and settled into a huge home cooked meal.  The restaurant's name is Takuma.  You won't find it on any of the tourist maps, but I had read about it on tripadvisor.  The owners are a lovely older couple and the food is delicious!

All of that for less than 1,000 yen!!  The lady was really nice and complimented me on my (bad) Japanese.  The next day I was at the train station waiting to catch the train to my next destination and the same lady gets off a train that had just pulled into the station.  She saw me, came up to me wished me safe travels and told me to come back and visit again.  Lovely moment!

Feeling utterly stuffed full of food, I went back to the hotel and settled in for the night.

Matsumoto castle was great.  Again, pictures that I had seen (and these pictures here too) did not do it justice.  It is even more beautiful and grand in real life.  That's one castle ticked off the list!

Thanks again for reading.  I hope you enjoyed Matsumoto castle.  I will start work on part 3 of the Matsumoto trip soon.

See you next time!  

In pursuit of castles - Matsumoto (松本市)

Japan is a country full of castles.  Not your average European style castle, not that there is anything wrong with European castles, but Japanese castles are different.  They have a certain dominant air about them, standing tall over all that surrounds them.  There is a reason for that.  These castles were built initially as defence posts and were built next to strategic locations.  They also became homes for the local Feudal Lords, so they needed to stand tall, impress and intimidate.  There were once an estimated 5,000 castles across Japan.  Today that number stands at about 100 as most many have been destroyed over the years due to fire or fighting.

I had been meaning to start going around to some of these castles as they are truly amazing structures to see and finally the opportunity came along and I chose Matsumoto castle as the first one that I would see. 

 Matsumoto city is located in Nagano Prefecture, about 2.5 - 3 hours by train from Tokyo.  Mountains of the Japanese Alps line both sides of the valley that Matsumoto city is located in.  The city dates back to the 8th century and is Nagano Prefecture's second largest city behind Nagano city.

Setting out from home, I made my way along the Chuo line from central Tokyo and got off at Tachikawa to change to the Azusa Limited Express that runs along the Chuo line.  I bought a Non-Reserved ticket from the ticket machine (there is an English button which is really helpful!) and jumped onto the train as it arrived.  I recommend going for the Reserved seat ticket (only 320 yen more) as there was a lot more space in the Reserved seat cars than the Non-Reserved cars.  Unfortunately I didn't have a window seat so I couldn't take any photos of the countryside as we flew past.  A couple of hours later I arrived in Matsumoto and was greeted with a blanket of white.

It had snowed for the 2 days before I arrived and the temperature was a good 6 or 7 degrees colder than I had left behind in Tokyo.

I walked off to find my hotel which was located less than 10 minutes walk from the station, and about halfway between the station and the castle.  I had booked a room at the Hotel Matsumoto Yorozuya which is one of the standard business hotels or budget hotels that you find all across Japan.  They are no frills hotels with great prices.  Good for a base from which to explore the area you are visiting.  If you enjoy spending time at your hotel when travelling, then this option is not for you.  When I checked in, the lady behind the desk spoke English quite well.

The double rooms are about 15 square metres and have everything you need

including a remote control for the toilet with English instructions!!

I was going to have to check that out later (!) as I had exploring to do.  Dropping off my bags I walked back about a block toward the station where I had passed an interesting little temple / shrine combination.

It looked really nice covered in snow, although I am sure the monk responsible for the gardening would not agree with me!

Now this is a sight I don't see in Tokyo!

Right next to the temple was a small shrine, resplendent in vibrant red.

I love the detail that these carvings always have!

I left the temple and shrine behind as I had read about a nice little shopping street nearby that I wanted to check out.  Using my extremely helpful map (in English!) that I got from the tourist information office inside the station (come through the ticket gate and you can't miss it.  If you come to a Starbucks, you've walked too far.) I walked off in the direction of the shopping street.  I should say "I carefully walked off" as it was icy and slippery underfoot in places.

About a 10 minute walk (5 under normal conditions!) along the river later

I came across this........

I suddenly had flashbacks to earlier in January when myself and my brother Matty travelled out to Lake Kawaguchi and saw some other strange animals at the bottom of Mount Kachi Kachi ropeway!  Looking up I found that I had arrived at the beginning of the shopping street.

The shopping street is called Nawate street and is lined on both sides by white shops, all of the same style so that the street keeps a nice pristine manicured look to it.  You can buy all kinds of things from the shops along the street such as flowers,

watches and antiques,

dog flower pots.......

food,

and Godzilla.

It was late afternoon and there were not many people around so it was a nice, relaxing walk along the street.

I came across a ceramics shop that had all different kids of ceramic cups, plates and bowls.  In Japan people quite often have ceramic beer cups which they keep in their refrigerators and drink beer from.  The cold ceramic cups keep beer colder for longer.  Now I am a sucker for a nice ceramic beer cup (I often buy one when I travel out of Tokyo to another city) and I couldn't help myself and walked out of the shop with 2 of them!

The friendly shop owner (who spoke English well) also gave me a piece of paper which explained the frog statues that I had been seeing along the street.

Now I understood!

Also along the street is Yohashira Shrine which was built about 200 years ago.  A nice shrine with a large resident population of pigeons.

Yes, I did cleanse my hands from the fountain and yes, the water was extremely cold!

After having reached the end of the street I started walking back and saw an interesting alleyway that demanded my attention

so I set off exploring this, probably less well known, section of the city.

All across Matsumoto (and countless other cities in Japan that receive a lot of snow and rain) there are these drains that channel melted snow and rain into the river system.  There is definitely no shortage of water in Japan!

Those wet patches on the ground were not wet patches, but icy patches which nearly caught me out!

Some interesting buildings in this area.  A German restaurant,

some really nice, old style buildings

and this vine crawling it's way up the side of a building, still a couple of years off completely dominating the wall.

Walking out of the alleyways I suddenly found myself looking at the reason I had come to Matsumoto.  It's beauty was breathtaking and I just stood there for a couple of minutes admiring it's magnificence and grandeur!

I didn't take another step closer though as Matsumoto castle was for tomorrow.  Reluctantly I turned around and walked back to the hotel.

Thanks for reading this first part of my trip to Matsumoto.  There will probably be three parts, stay tuned for the next couple (over the next week or so).

See you next time.