We arrived and found that it's actually a pretty small town with little to do. On the first night Jane had some calls to make in the hotel, so I walked around pretty much half of it in an hour.... And was offered 'sexy massages' twice. Both times were in quiet residential looking areas, and the first time I thought she was asking for directions as she looked like she was out for shopping.
I got home, and we went for dinner at an awesome place where everything is cooked on tiny skewers.... Tasted incredible, especially the quails eggs wrapped in bacon, and the chicken!
Matsumoto also has a castle which we went around, and some resident ninjas that helped me kidnap Jane. The castle had some strange things, such as:
- 5 viewable floors from the outside, but six floors inside.
- Because it was a great dishonour and tradition demanded it, there was a ritual suicide area for the diamon (province leader), incase the castle was ever captured. The castle was captured more than a dozen times. The room was never used.
- A collection of rifles.... Rifles were introduced into Japan by the Portuguese who sold individual pieces for vast sums, and were then deconstructed, studied, and rebuilt by sword makers. Each did it differently though, and guarded the secrets of them closely, so there are many different types of rifle from a small period of Japan's history.
However, we were here for the Kiso valley, an amazing walk along part of the old route between Osaka and Edo (now Tokyo). This route was a traveller's journey from village to village, each 4km apart. Use of horses were only allowed by high officials, so inns and beds for the night were close together. Today, a section of around 10 of these villages remain.
We did three villages and the walk was great....Jane even saw a bear! Every 500m or so there was a bell to ring so that bears would run away, but one was obviously a bit inquisitive!
Chris
Ps. I only only saw this cat.
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