Hello everyone!

Let’s just start things out by saying that I woke up at 3am… and didn’t go back to sleep. So that’s where we are today.

Jam packed day today, with mountains, mishaps, and miso!

Overall not too bad.

We started out today knowing that our little group would be splitting up. Jimmy and Jordan had plans to hit the slopes, and I was taking myself on a little self guided tour of the mountain town of Matsumoto.

The night before I’d gotten an alert that my original train time had changed due to heavy snowfall, and my train was now leaving earlier than expected. That meant that the shuttle to the train station would not be running yet and I’d have to find my own way to the station.

The staff at our hotel tried to schedule me a cab but there were none available, and a try with uber was unsuccessful. So I decided to put on my snow spikes, which I’d brought from home, and do the 40min walk to the station. If I left right away and did a bit of hurrying I had just enough time.

I headed out into the snow

I was getting close, when Google Maps told me to turn down a road… but there was no road. I think the snow was just so high on the road that you couldn’t see it, and without snow shoes or snow pants I certainly wasn’t going to off road it.

So I had to backtrack and watched my train pull away as I was running up to the station.

Sad day.

There was another train in two hours, and a cafe next to the station had just opened, so I decided to go grab a coffee and some breakfast.

I got to eat with my buddy Totoro. I know who he is now after watching SO MANY Ghibli studio films in preparation for this trip.

Here’s the area around the station with the mountains in the back

I was also able to run over to a local grocery co-op where I got some strawberries. I kept hearing that strawberries in Japan are extra delicious because they are bread to be very sweet. And they are in season in January.

For some reason instead of eating them right away I shoved them in my backpack and proceeded to carry them around for the next couple days. When I finally got to them they were a bit squished but were in fact very sweet and full of flavor.

I made the next train, and this ride was too beautiful not to try taking some pics.

I had to make a connection on the train to get there, and I got off the first train I noticed everyone was moving directly into a train across the walkway. The train was only labeled in Japanese, so I wasn’t sure if it was the right one, but I figured it would take me somewhere.

I followed the crowd and took a seat. An Australian family also got on looking stressed, and the dad asked if it was the train to Matsumoto. I said I hoped so. He, being more industrious than me, found someone else who knew what they were doing to ask and gave me the thumbs up.

Matsumoto was definitely warmer than Hakuba, and it was a beautiful sunny day. After taking a couple of wrong turns (I tend to get lost more without Jimmy; I have very little sense of direction), I made it to my main destination: Matsumoto castle.

Matsumoto castle is famous for quite a few things, the first being that it is old and is considered one of Japan’s 12 original castles since it was never fully destroyed and rebuilt. Parts of this castle are original and built in the 1500’s.

It’s also beautiful, with a striking location surrounded by the mountains and a black exterior. It’s also called crow castle.

You can tour the inside which looked really cool, however I arrived a couple of hours later than expected and didn’t have time. I just walked around the grounds outside the castle which is free.

After enjoying the castle I hit the streets to find some lunch.

Here are some of the streets I wandered:

I definitely stumbled on some tempting options in the form of a couple of vending machines.

One for pizza

And one for baked sweet potatoes

I didn’t get anything from either of them, which I kind of regret now. What would a vending machine sweet potato be like?

I made it to my destination, which was the Ishi Miso factory. Matsumoto is located in Nagano prefecture, which I learned makes the vast majority of miso consumed throughout the world. Ishi is special as it’s been making miso forever, and still makes it the old fashioned way in small batches in wooden barrels.

They do tours of their factory, but only one per day in English which I had missed. I did get a free miso tasting, though, and got some miso based ramen for lunch.

The highlight was their miso ice cream, which tasted a bit like a very rich caramel.

They also have a little shop where you can purchase all things miso, including pickled veggies.

After my miso adventure it was time to head back to the train station and meet up with the guys in Nagano, as we are moving locations again.

When we were planning this trip, it became clear that to fit in everything we want to do we would need to be moving locations more than is usual for me and Jimmy. Normally we choose a home base and do some day trips, but on this trip things are too spread out. So tonight we’re heading to our next destination: Nozawaonsen.

This means that after a day of snowboarding, the guys (who have not showered) will need to bring everything from our hotel to Nagano to meet me at the train station there.

Speaking of the guys, you’ll have to ask them about their day. I can tell you that it involved a windy white out at the top of the mountain after a rickety ride on an old gondola.

After a series of mishaps they made it to the lower part of the mountain which actually looked really beautiful.

They also had to strip off their snowboarding gear in the lobby of the hotel and make a run for a bus with their bags, snowboards, and my bags.

Honestly you should ask them to make a blog post. Their day was much more exciting than mine.

The train ride to Nagano was another gorgeous one, especially as the sun was starting to set.

I made to find Jimmy, Jordan, and my bags waiting for me. What great service!

The view from Nagano station:

We hopped a series of trains, which sounds nice and breezy but remember we had our bags and snow gear with us, and after a bus ride in we made it Nozawaonsen, which I’ll talk more about tomorrow.

For now, just know that these beware of bear signs were EVERYWHERE

We had a dinner of burgers surrounded by more Australians, and headed to bed.

We’ve got an early day tomorrow.

Good night.