April 12

Monday morning bright and early (as in, on the train by 7am...blurg...ah to be jetlagged again...) we left on a train to Matsumoto. We wanted to get there early, since we would only have one day there. It was cold, it was rainy, and the hotel was locked, so we had difficulties trying to get them to hold our luggage, which was frustrating...

But...

There were puppies!!!!


After my coming close to kicking in the door of the hotel with frustration, we walked down the street to see these little cuties outside of a pet shop. The 2 in the bottom cage were dying to get our attention, and got to the point of fighting each other over it...


The top two were really scared of us, and got to the point of fighting each other to get away from us...


At that point we decided it was best to leave.

Anywho, our main attraction in Matsumoto was to see Matsumoto Castle, which is one of the oldest remaining castles in Japan, and the original structure has been very well-preserved.


It was neat, I suppose, but much more impressive from the outside than from the inside. They had the inside pretty much bare, except for a few displays on old guns. The way that Matsumoto castle was built leads historians to believe that guns had already been introduced to Japan at that time, and included in the castle's defense system. Now, I am not a gun-toting person in general (I figure if I ever come across a foe, I will just kill them with mind beams... or awesomeness... whichever one isn't a made up superpower), but the Japanese made really beautiful guns:


The picture doesn't really do justice to the detail of the gold designs along the barrel. I mean EVERY part of that gun was intricately ornamented, and was surprisingly beautiful for a weapon of death.

The other interesting thing about the castle was the steepness of the stairs leading from one level to the next.


These are not even the steepest stairs in the castle. I'd say the steepest stairs were at least 1.5 feet high and only about .5 feet deep (does anyone want to figure out the slope for extra bonus points? ok, that's just nerdy Lexi...). Oh, and yes, that is the aforementioned hat and scarf. I've already had enough Japanese people laugh at the hat... don't you start.

Erik was able to get some pretty pictures of the grounds:



And this weird one of a goose/swan:


As an aside, I am somewhat incensed that these cherry blossoms have a more rugged constitution than I. Come on sakura! It's freaking freezing!! Stop being a first sign of spring while I'm over here in my 5 layers of clothing, even unable to smile properly due to my frozen facial features!!


Ok, maybe I'm just not very photogenic. You're not to blame for that, little sakura.

After the castle, we took a quick stroll down frog street. We don't know why the street is dominated by frog memorabilia. You'll have to do the research on your end. We don't ask the questions, we just take the pictures.
This one reminded us of Naruto, teehee:




Then we bought a rice cracker from a street vendor and sat under a bridge to eat it, like the true Japanese hobos that we are.