We got up very early so we could get on the road as we had 2 pretty long train rides to get to Matsumoto then back to Tokyo. We headed down to the station and grabbed some “breakfast” after waiting for a little shop in the station to open. Our breakfast was a hame egg salad sandwich and a pork cutlet sandwich and 2 rice balls (onigiri), one tuna and one salmon. Not bad over all if a little odd for breakfast.

We changed trains to the local in Nagoya heading for Matsumoto and headed up into the mountains, “The Japanese Alps”. As we got closer the landscape changed greatly from more plains with hills surrounding each town to being among the mountains, some still snow covered, and rivers racing down to the sea. It was a lot like driving up into the mountains in Colorado and was very beautiful. When we got to Matsumoto we headed to the locker area and sure enough all the large ones were taken again. I was pretty down and about to head to the information desk to see if they knew where we cold store our luggage when a nice Japanese man saw our confusion and asked what we were looking for. I explained we were looking for the lockers and that all the big ones were taken and after he understood that the lockers nearby wouldn’t work he said to try down the escalator. There was no sign down there so I was a little skeptical but we headed down anyway as there was a restroom and it had been a long train ride. Sur enough hidden away under the escalator there was another set of lockers with several large ones free so we stashed our stuff and headed for the bus called the “Town Sneaker” (no kidding). I had gotten some bus maps and info at the desk earlier so it was pretty simple getting on the right bus though I will say the further you get from the beaten path the less signs will be in English, you can still get by but it takes a little more patience and determination. We arrived at the castle and went right in to tour the inside. Matsumoto Castle is original from the 1500s and, I believe, is the oldest such castle in Japan. It was cool but not really cold but inside the castle you had to remove your shoes so our feet were pretty cold by the end. The inside of the castle was really pretty neat as it was built right around the time of transition to firearms and many of the defenses were built for that (smaller holes in the walls for rifles right alond side holes for archers). The stairs to each next level (6 total, 1 is a “hidden” floor not visible from the outside) were very steep with the one from the 4th to 5th floor being 61 degrees. Needless to say Becky and I had to seriously watch our heads, and feet for that matter as the stairs were generally about 6 inches deep. Because of the stairs it took a while to get to the top but we did eventually and took some pictures before heading back down the treacherous steps. We got a few laughs out of the Japanese tourists on our attempts to keep our heads attached to our bodies and our feet on the stairs on the way down. When we got back outside we put our shoes back on and headed around the rest of the castle before heading back to the bus stop to return to the station.

We looked into a shop near the bus stop to kill time before our bus arrived then decided just to walk it back and look for lunch. Matsumoto is known for it’s soba noodles so we were looking for that in the plastic foos and pictures at the restaurants and finally just before we got back to the station we found one and proceeded to point at the plastic food we wanted. Becky also pointed to what we assumed was just a large model of an Asahi beer bottle and indicated she wanted one. When our food arrived , and the beer, it turned out this was not a model but actual size and it was I think 650mL or something but needless to say it was big with 2 small glasses with which to enjoy it. I had fried soba noodles with seafood and vegetables on top and Becky had soba noodles in a soup with seafood and a boiled quail egg on top and we also had some gyoza (dumplings). It was all very good and we scarfed it down because we were very hungry.

We headed back to the station and caught the local heading to Nagano where we would catch the train to Tokyo. The local to Nagano was interesting as several of the stops were apparently on spur lines as we decended into Nagano valley as we would go forward into the station then leave in reverse. Not knowing this would happen was more than a little disconcerting. When we did arrive at Nagano we had thought about looking around but honestly I was tired and ready to be rid of our luggage so we got the next shinkansen bound for Tokyo and settled back for the 2 hour ride. When we got to Tokyo station we had to find the local “Yamanote” line which loops around Tokyo itself and take it just one stop to Yurakucho which is just north of the Ginza area where our hotel is located.

We got out and got the map out for the hotel and headed out what we hoped was the right exit. This was a big change from the other places we had been, even Hiroshima and Kyoto, as there were people EVERYWHERE. it was pretty crazy but as we lugged our stuff along we saw several of the landmarks from the hotel directions and eventually got to the hotel. It is literally just around the corner from the Chuo-Dori street in Ginza which is basically the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo. You have almost certainly seen it in movies if you have seen any based in Tokyo as it contains one of the busiest intersections in Japan, if not the world. After we got settled in our hotel, the Mercure Ginza, we headed out to walk down Chuo-Dori. One of the first stores we saw was the famous multi-level Apple Store Ginza so we headed in to check it out. The first level is just normal product displays and was very crowded so we headed to the back to the 2 glass elevators and got in. The first thing we noticed was that the elevators were clearly designed by Apple’s UI staff in that they had numbers and direction indicators but no way to push them or choose for yourself (you might go to a floor out of order for Pete’s sake!) so you were just along for the ride. The second floor was the Genius Bad and iPhone Bar for tech support, the third was a meeting hall where a presentation of some sort was going on, and the 4th was all the stuff usually in the back of the Apple store but move of it, accessories, software, etc.

We then headed down and on the next corner we saw the famous San-Ai building (see pictures when they are up) and the Wako department store building at the busy intersection I mentioned before. We kept walking down and visited the Nissan gallery where they had a display of there zero emmission electric cars and the Yamaha piano store where Becky played me several songs and I attempted to play Mary had a Little Lamb. We also visited a cool toy store, Toy Park, which was 4 or 5 levels of toys (think FAO Schwartz japanese style). We were getting hungry by this point so we headed back in the direction of our hotel searching for food but of course everything we looked at was very expensive. We went through 2 of the department store food areas but nothing was looking good and we were wanting a sit down meal so we kept searching.

On the road to our hotel there were a couple of options that looked good so we picked one called “Miso Bank” and headed up the stairs. When we got there we opened the menu to no pictures and no english. We asked the waiter if they had a picture or english menu and they did not so we decided since the categories were labled, cicken, pork, rice and noodles, etc., that we would just brave it and point. Becky ended up with a bowl of chicken sausage nuggets and a poached egg and I had pork sukiyaki (where you cook it on a hibachi yourself at the table). It was all tasty but it was VERY small portions so after we both decided we would head to McDonald’s to try the egg burger we had seen advertised and also the bacon potato pie. We got it all back to our hotel room and started to eat the burger which turns out to be a sausage pattie (from what I could tell) dipped in a teriyaki sauce with an Egg McMuffin type egg on top and lettuce and mayo. I think Becky was not very interested in hers but I actually thought it was pretty good. I am going to petition McDonald’s to bring it out annually like the McRib :). The bacon potato pie was interesting the crust was basically like your typical McDonald’s fruit pie but filled with what tasted like thick potato soup almost. It was actually very good and I think Becky and I both agreed it would do well in the states. After this we kind of just did some internet surfing (I got an adapter!!) and looked at our plans for tomorrow before heading to bed.