Day 24 - Matsumoto

Woke up and went through my usual routine before we got ready to check out. After checking out, we headed to the train station to head to our next location. 

After making a quick stop at the souvenir store to pick up some crab crackers, we caught the bullet train to Nagano. Normally, it wouldn't be too busy inside a reserved car, but that wasn't the case today. I believe Obon is starting soon?

At Nagano, we took a local line to Matsumoto. It was a long trip -- 100 minutes in total. The scenery outside though was quite amazing. As we arrived at Matsumoto, I was amazed at how crowded the station seemed to be. It's like a reminder of what's to come Amin Tokyo. 

After checking in, we proceeded to Matsumoto castle. Unlike most of the other castles we've been to, Matsumoto Castle was black. It's a nice contrast to all the other castles we've seen so far. 

After the castle, we headed back near our hotel to find supper. We found a small, but cozy atmospheric soba shop. They had English speaking jazz music in the background. We tried their raw horse meat, which is a speciality of Marsumoto, and I head their soba with wild duck broth. Both were extremely tasty. Afterwards, our waiter brought out a small pot with water used to boil the soba noodles. He told us to mix it with our soba sauce and drink it as an after drink. It was tasty from the soba, with a slightly thicker texture than water. 

After dinner, we stocked up for breakfast. That pretty much ended our day for today! Back to Tokyo tomorrow!