Japan Trip Report – Matsumoto – Days 13 to 15

Day 13

We arrived in Matsumoto expecting a sleepy village in the Japanese Alps.  But when we left the train station, we walked out into a little city.  Walking towards our hotel, Matsumoto Hotel Kagetsu, the city vibe did switch to quainter small town feel which was nice.

The hotel was just a few blocks from Matsumoto Castle, so we stopped by to take a look while they got our rooms ready.    It’s really cool looking and one of the few remaining original castles that have survived.  Most of the castles in Japan are now recreations.

After checking in, everyone wanted to relax before dinner.  I walked a few blocks down to the Matsumoto Brewery.  It was just a little stand up bar with room for about 8 people.  The beer was just average but it was cool to be in a craft beer bar with actual Japanese beer drinkers instead of foreign hipsters for once.

 

We had dinner at Toritetsu which is a yakitori place (meat, primarily chicken, on skewers) not too far from the train station.  It wasn’t a particularly nice looking place, but it had an English menu and that was important.

We were seated at a traditional Japanese table (on the floor) and the waiter couldn’t have been nicer.  He struggled with English but had a translator and really wanted to speak with us and recommended some things on the menu that were great.  He even convinced me to order Sake which I knew I needed to at least try before I left Japan.  The sake we ordered was okay, but then he brought us his grandfather’s recipe that his cousin was now brewing.  It was fantastic and he didn’t charge us for it.  His generosity and joy in seeing us enjoy his family’s heritage was one of the true highlights of the trip.

Day 14

Today was all about the Snow Monkeys and that was all we needed today.  We took the train from Matsumoto to Nagano and then a bus to  Jigokudani Monkey Park.  Just about 2 hours including the waiting times.   After exiting the bus, you have a 30 minute hike to the onsen (hot springs) where the snow monkeys come to play.

In June, there’s no snow on the ground, but you’re high up enough in the mountains that it’s still a bit cold.  When we arrived the monkeys were all over the park, but none of them were in the springs like you see in all the pictures plastered across the internet.  We enjoyed watching them run around and were lucky enough to see all the babies that were born in the Spring.

There’s absolutely no separation between you and the monkeys.  You keep to yourself and hope they pay the same the respect back.  We took a ton of pictures and then went back into the station for a water.  It was amazing to be so close to these animals, but it wasn’t what we had hoped for either.  We went back for a second look as this was literally the only thing we had planned to do.  And we were so glad that we did.  As we got back, the teenager monkeys started to play.  And it was just like watching my own kids chase each other, jump on each other’s backs and dunk each other.

Day 15 

After some awesome sweet pastries at Sweet Co just off the little river that runs through Matsumoto, we boarded the train to Hakone.  This is a true small Alpine village.  We rented bikes and made our way through the countryside.

We ended up at the Daiso Wasabi Farm which is a massive complex with acres upon acres of wasabi.  They have a few restaurants on the premises catering to tourists that sell just about everything wasabi.  From wasabi ice cream (delicious), wasabi hot dogs (ok), and a wasabi croquette (decent).

And of course, they had wasabi beer (not great)

We rode bikes for about another hour through the countryside before my youngest son got a flat and that ended that.  Headed back to Matsumoto for dinner.  We ate our last dinner at Katsu Gen Honten which was another Tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) restaurant.  Nobody spoke a word of English in the restaurant, but the menu had pictures and we figured it out with a little bit of pointing.  The quality of meat here was phenomenal.

After dinner we took our final look at the at Matsumoto Castle at night.  And it was just a perfect way to wrap up our trip (we still had a whole day of travelling to get to Tokyo the next morning and fly out, but we’ll call this our swan song).

 

 

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