Today we took the shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Matsumoto. If I remember correctly, the ride was about 3hrs so plenty of time to relax before hitting the bricks. Our guide, Raya, keeps us moving so a little break is nice. The weather today is good for touring, cool (mid-60’s  also a good time period for good music) with no rain forecast.

Betsy enjoying the bullet train

Once we arrive at our destination everyone headed out for the hotel to drop off our bags and then grab a bit of lunch. Unfortunately, we all elected to do a quick picnic lunch which ended up being a cold hot dog for me, sushi for Collette, but the view was nice. We ate along side the moat of the castle which had a nice view of the snow-capped mountains and the castle.

Matsumoto Castle

Stone cold hot dog

Sushi lunch

Matsumoto castle is one of the oldest in Japan (I know, heard that before) but it also has a secret that no other castle in Japan has. It has a hidden floor! That’s right, they hid one of the floors. There are 5 levels on the outside but 6 floors on the inside! And, the floors are called, “Nightingale floors”. Why are they called nightingale floors? Because they squeak when you walk on them. Hell, our house has had nightingale floors for years and we just didn’t know it. It was thought that these floors were an early warning system for the samurai guards when intruders entered but that was debunked. After a floor study was conducted, it was determined that the noise really comes from the nails rubbing against the hinges and braces for the floor, nothing to do with early warning.

The castle fortifications date back to the Warring Period, 1467-1600, but the castle wasn’t built until 1594. The castle group consists of 5 structures, the Great Keep in the center; the small Inui Keep; the Watari Tower; the Tatsumitsuke Tower; and the Tsukimi Tower. The Tokugawa shogunate was centered at Matsumoto castle.

Ninja and samurai. no really, they said they were real.

Had the place to ourselves!

Samurai dress. How the hell did they fight in this get-up?

So endth the sword play

After attempting to climb the 6 floors inside via the ladder like steps, me and the misses decided it would be best to enjoy the castle from the outside. The climb inside was very steep, to make it difficult for intruders, but also difficult for tourist. Guess they didn’t think about that, huh!

Chapter 23, What to do when you have an asshole in the group…

Anyway, after watching our guide doing a bit of studying for our next adventure, we decided to join her. Besides, it was dinner time and we were all going to a huge food court where you can try loads of different dishes. Can’t wait. But first, Raya had to show us this special statue. Frogs. Yep, a frog statue. Seems there were these frogs of a special type that used to live here. Then came the flood. No more frogs. So the town capitalized on the fact these frogs are gone and turned it into a tourist attraction. Genius! Nothing like good capitalism to bring the frogs back.

Not sure why I was so eager to get here, had fried chicken, again, and pot stickers. Seems like I can’t escape chicken, it’s everywhere and it all tastes the same. But, not complaining, it’s better than fish, rice and miso.

Food court

Fried chicken

Pot stickers

Tomorrow we’re off to Nagano to see the snow monkeys! Yay! Except there isn’t any snow, but there’s still monkeys. Till tomorrow…