Down from the Mountains
We woke up in our three separate hotel rooms, ready for a long train ride. We had tickets for a train at 1:10pm, and wanted to see a little of Matsumoto before we left.
Osaka had more of that blend of old and new that cities that have been around a while have, whereas Matsumoto felt more like a city that was built recently. It felt more familiar, because most things in California were built recently.
We dropped off our bags in the lobby, and walked to Matsumoto Castle, an impressive castle on top of a hill surrounded by a moat.
We took a look at the local flora, wisteria and ginkgo, and we saw the layout of the original homes that burned down long ago near the castle.
We had thought about going inside the castle, but apparently they have stairs inside that are like ladders, and everything is only about 5 ft tall, which would have been difficult for everyone not just me.
After we finished at Matsumoto Castle, we headed to the local aeon Mall, which was very large and impressive. We grabbed some groceries, we took a look at the local anime shop, we browsed ridiculous American-themed t-shirts, and then we headed to the train station to grab bento boxes and catch our 3 and 1/2 hour train.
The train was comfortable, but was not bullet speed. After 3 and 1/2 hours of reading and relaxing on the train, we got to Shinjuku station in Tokyo.
We navigated the back streets, found the tap dance studio on the corner, and then had no idea how to get into our Airbnb, or exactly where it was.
After a young Christian missionary tried to help us by asking us questions that we were already asking ourselves and then standing politely by waiting for us to ask him things, we finally found our Airbnb got in, dropped our bags off, and went to a cafe while we waited for our check-in time.
Once we got in, turned on the air conditioners, waited for the house to cool down, and then relaxed for a bit, We had it literally across the street to a small teppanyaki grilling restaurant.
They were super nice, the food was super good, and we headed home fat and happy.
The kids watched some of the super Mario Galaxy movie, while we enjoyed not having walked 18,000 steps in a day.