Matsumoto, Chubu, Japan
Sunday, July 24, 2011
I devised a plan to get to Osaka for the festival on the 25th and still get to a different festival in Matsumoto and see the castle all in one day. It only involved getting up at 6am and taking 5 trains and getting to our final destination by midnight covering i recon probably well over 1000km in one day. It actually worked out better than i expected. Got to matsumoto at around 11.30 and realised the whole plan could be screwed because we had our bags and there were no free lockers and we couldnt exactly take them up the castle. Luckily tho there were some more outside so we put our bags in and headed for the castle. When we got there we heard loads of sirens and thought there mite be an earthquake or something. Behind the castle on a hill was a massive fire which looked like basically an entire building had gone up. The main palace that the castle was attached to was also burnt down a few hundred years ago because the main left to party on new year and left the stove on. We got the nicest guide ever for free who did us a great tour of the castle which i was surprised was in better nick until i learnt that there had never actually been any battles there. Went to watch a parade then got 3 more trains to Hiroshima where im writing this about to go to Osaka for a festival. 2 more hours on a train. worked out we had already used about 270 pounds of rail journeys before this mission. want to try and get it up to atleast 1000.
