Blogs from Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan, Asia

With snow shoes in hand, and poles acquired with pre Christmas sales, we were set. Decathlon Spain set us free from needing to rely on gear hire locations for any winter hiking. The snow shoeing bug hit us after two previous winter trips together here, and my natural aversion to skiing/ snow boarding (with its injury risk) plus P2s passion for photo taking lends itself to ‘snow the slow way’. Comparable to such trip costs in NZ, we have come again for a fairly economical holiday ‘fix’! Trawling the snow forecasts across a few sources had informed where we would choose to go. Fast forward to December 2019 post-Christmas, and barely a flake had fallen in parts of Nagano prefecture, where we’d begin. Air NZ again took us to Narita, and the flight, seat choice, and ... read more

We woke early and went to the bus stop to go to Matsumoto. It was overcast and cooler than yesterday. The journey was scenic. It took a couple of hours through the mountains and past an enormous dam. We arrived in a very hot, steamy Matsumoto for our final day in Japan. We dropped our bags off to our (unairconditioned) backpackers, then headed toward the Matsumoto Castyle. It was beautiful. We went in, around the gardens (it was very crowded) then into the castle up the many, steep stairs to the top (four floors). The views of the city were lovely. We decided to get an ice-cream because it was steamy and I could not be bothered eating anything else. We wandered around the town, through temples, shops and around the village. It was a charming ... read more

Heute die japanischen Alpen durchquert. Sie sind recht steil aber nicht übermäßig hoch. Dafür beginnen Sie aber auch bei Meeresspiegel, so dass die relative Höhe auch gleich die absolute Höhe ist. Sie sind bis zu den Gipfeln bewaldet und es fehlen die Felswände. Irgendwie wie ein wild gewordener Schwarzwald. Hier verlief auch die Straße, die früher Kyoto und Tokyo verband. Einige Dörfer sind noch im alten Stil erhalten und heute eine Touristenattraktion. Und weil heute Sonntag ist, waren wir nicht allein. Der Straßenbau in Japan verblüfft mich immer wieder. Wenn gerade kein Mensch da ist, der sich vor mir verbeugt, dann ist es ein Plakat, das einen sich tief vorbeugenden Arbeiter darstellt. Oder eine LED Anzeige, wo sich einer pausenlos verbeugt. Wieder fuhren wir teilweise auf sehr schmalen Straßen. Aber wenn dann plötzlich Platz ist, folgt ... read more

So we decide that we are going on a day trip to Matsumoto Castle off on the train we get and arrive in Matsumoto. Quickly we find our way to the castle. Matsumoto Castle is one of the oldest five story tenshu in Japan. It was amazing going around the castle and climbing the stairs to each of the floors. I am not a very tall person and the Japanese are smaller than me so why do they build staircases with stairs so far away from each other I have no idea - there must be a reason but it beats me! The gardens were also amazing with so many fabulous flowers and plants. As I was looking out the window of the castle there was a Geisha girl walking and the vision looked so Japanese ... read more

Takayama We had planned two stops in the alps region. Due to hostels (again!) we could only stay one night in Takayama. There seemed like a lot to see and do in and around Takayama so it was a bit of a shame, but we had a lovely time there. It was also our first time in ‘real’ beds for a while! We had a family room with bunks. Our hostel was only a short walk from the two ‘traditional buildings preservation areas’ so our first afternoon was spent wandering around the Sanmachi-suji (district). We wandered a few streets of restored/preserved merchant shops and private houses. There were several sake breweries (breweries closed, shop open) and plenty of tourist type shops. It was lovely wandering around. The next morning we headed out again on foot starting ... read more