Day 8: train travel and Matsumoto

Today was a bit of a slow day, which was really nice. I got a late start and got moved out of my Airbnb, and headed to the train station. Not that the videos do it any justice, but the views the entire way were gorgeous! Just so beautiful through the mountains  




I didn’t check the train times beforehand and made it just in time to jump on my train. I took it an hour to Matsumoto. Where I checked out this cool castle 







I climbed to the top of the castle, up very very steep stairs, and saw a bunch of old armor and guns. It was cool to see. Matsumoto has a bunch of cute frog statues around town. My fav is the samurai frog statue. I asked a Japanese couple if they wanted me to take their picture, cause they were taking pictures of each other and they were so delighted. After they started to walk away the woman ran back and gave me a handful of candy. It was really cute. 




After I wandered for a while I made my way to my Ryokan and got checked in and had a quick rest before going to dinner. I went to this restaurant run by a few ladies and asked them to give me whatever was best. I got Japanese bbq chicken wings, Japanese curried pork shanks, and some sort of stew. It was all super delicious.

After I headed back to my hotel and took a long soak in the onsen and headed to bed. Exhausted and happy. 



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