October 18, 2025
Day 46 — Matsumoto
As Marilee mentioned in the last post, today was slated as a day off. Laundry and a castle were on the agenda.
We were quite charmed by Asamaonsen, the neighbourhood we found ourselves in. It had both intact historical buildings and streets, and a bit of life to it. It was also a picturesque warren of alleyways nestled against the hillside. Good place for a day off.
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Our first destination on our tourist agenda was Nawate street, with Edo-period preserved shops and businesses. It was very much a gentrified touristy thing, but was an enjoyable walk. Shops were selling many frog related items, which was the mascot of the street.
Our main destination was Matsumoto castle. The castle is one of I think a dozen old castles that remain intact and is not a reconstruction. It is also unique for its exterior being black in colour rather than white. The interior is open for visitors, so we lined up with our fellow tourists to have a look.
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The traipse through the interior was in a long lineup of visitors. The usual. Castles and always cool to visit for some reason. This one had good explanations of architectural details, history, and a focused series of exhibits, with some cool artifacts, on the introduction and evolution of the use of guns in Japanese combat.
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Castle visited, we headed to a second historic street, full of fancy restaurants and sake breweries. We enjoyed a surprisingly affordable lunch, which fuelled us for the return to our lodging and the trip to the laundromat.
Laundry done, we returned to our fancy neighbourhood onsen, which unlike last night, was very busy, mostly with young folks scrubbing up for a Saturday night on the town.
Some meat and potatoes for dinner, some post dinner itinerary planning, and it was an early night on a day well spent.
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