We checked out of our hotel and caught the train back to Shinjuku Station. Once there we enquired about the left luggage office. All Japanese stations seem to have left luggage lockers but most of these were too small for our huge suitcases. The lass in the Information Office suggested that the Department store, Odakyu, had larger lockers and gave us rough directions. Main Japanese railway stations can be like a labyrinth andpossibly Shinjuku is the most complex....

Friday. Checked out of our hotel in Matsumoto and headed back up the motorway to Nagono to return the car. After being dropped of at the station, we had a "morning set" at a cafe and caught the Shinkansen train to Tokyo. We transfered onto a normal JR line to Shin Okubo. The train was crowded and we felt a bit conspicuous with our large cases. Turning out on to a busy street, we managed to negotiate the complex area and building numbering system to find our hotel...

Today the skiew were overcast so we rethought our plans. Originally we were going to do the walk between Tsumago and Magome, two old post towns in Gifu-ken, however the weather did not bode well for walking. Indtead we headed up to Suwa lake where there was allegedly a natural geyser. The rain on the way was torrential but stopped when we arrived. As with many tourist attractions, they are not signposted but we took a guess and parked up near an old steam locamo...

Today we went for a walk around Matsumoto city. We ate breakfast at a coffee shop by the station Vie de France, which sold all sorts of unusual cakes, such as anko paste doughnuts, sweet potato muffins, pumpkin stuffed muffins and many more.Then we walked towards the castle. On the way we past the Yokashira shrine. Alongside it is a narrow street of shops and eateries, where frogs seem to be the coomon theme. There was a huge sculture of a lizard fighting a frog,...

We set off early towards the Tateyama National Park. We had a few doubts about the efficiency of the Sat Nav as it seemed to take us round in almost circles. We were heading up to Murudo to see Mt Tateyama, but all of a sudden the Sat Nav lost the route. We saw a sign for Shimyo Falls so decided to head up there. It wasn't far and at the Falls we saw a map which showed where Murodo was. We decided to walk up to the Falls which was about half an hours stroll. The ...