On today's agenda was a bus trip to the mountains to visit the Jigokudani monkey park. With Isabelle starting to come down with a horrible cough, and Veronica not feeling the best either, we decided to keep today simpler.

So over a Toyoko Inn breakfast we devised a plan to head back on the Shinkansen towards Tokyo for a 25 minute journey, which would bring us to an area called Karuizawa, which is a picturesque area in the Nagano prefecture where a lot of cashed-up suburbanites apparently have holiday homes. As a result, a great deal of upscale shopping and outlet stores have popped up, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, in what would appear to be a very successful endeavor to separate these suburbanites, and more than a handful of day-tripping tourists, from some of their cash.

One such establishment is the Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza. As we got off the uncrowded shinkansen and walked out of the nice warm train station we looked over the shopping arcade, and were met with great views of a snow covered mountain with ski runs and chair lifts. At the time time we were hit with the less pleasant reality of icy cold winds blowing down off that same pretty snow covered mountain.

We're visiting the Japanese alps in what is almost literally the middle of winter. That said, I expected there to be more snow. Perhaps my romantic notion of the Japanese highlands in the middle of winter was a little too optimistic, but I was expecting snow covered footpaths, snow plows clearing the streets in the mornings, and awnings and carports which had to have the thick piles of snow scraped off them because they were in danger of collapsing. All we're actually getting is a few flakes of snow yesterday, and enough snow here and there to make the odd pile of ice and slush. Hardly the winter wonderland I had pictured in my head.

Being out in the middle of nowhere, the Karuizawa shopping arcade has plenty of space to play with. Most Japanese shopping malls I've been to are in the middle of crowded urban centres, and as such have no spare space, and shops are all crammed in as close as possible to each other. Not this one. This complex was pretty huge, and in what appeared to be an unusual location, like it had been randomly dropped from a great height, sim-city style.

In the middle of the complex there is a huge grassed area, covered in brown, frozen grass, and a very pretty, icy cold pond, containing 2 of the coldest looking ducks I've ever seen. They were floating around among the ice cubes. I'm assuming they were real. They looked real.

I trekked straight across the field towards the pond, and Veronica tells me that the signs say to keep off the grass. I argued that 1. I'm foreign, so I can't read the signs, and 2. There was no grass. Grass is green, This was brown. At best, it was hay.

After removing myself from their hay, and trying not to break a hip on the black ice that stood between me and the concrete pathway that the girls were on, we continued on to the actual shops. In doing so we passed what has to be the most pathethic snow park in the world. I'm sure, like me, even the park curator was expecting more snow, as he tirelessly worked to create the lamest mini toboggan run you will ever see, using the remaining bits of ice and snow that he was able to gather up off the ground.

The only other "snow" in this "park" was a snowman, and a small igloo. After Angela callously pushed the snowman's head off and made it roll down the hill it was not so much a snowman anymore as it was just a large snowball. I tried to compensate by putting a wedge of ice on top of the snowball, like a kind of pointy head, but it just wasn't the same. Frosty will remain beheaded until the next snowfall, because there just wasn't enough snow on the ground to build a new head.

As for the shopping arcade, it was underwhelming. It can apparently get very busy, but today it was absolutely deserted. Mostly popular fashion labels, the clerks in the store seemed to get very happy when you walked in because they finally had something to do. The 5 guys in the Oakley store seemed very happy to see me, as I think I was their first and only customer for the day, but their happiness faded when they realised I had no idea what they were talking about.

Not interested in fashion, we wandered past many stores, and continued to wonder why the reviews made such a big deal out of this place. "A great place to spend a day" one review said. A day? We were sick of it in under an hour, and that hour involved around 40 minutes in the Nike store trying on shoes. The Nike's in the outlet store were quite cheap, but not quite cheap enough in my opinion. They had a massive selection, but they didn't seem much cheaper than any other sports shoe store I've seen in Osaka, Tokyo or Kyoto.

Karuizawa is a very pretty location, and I'm glad we went there, but if you're just going there for the shopping, I wouldn't bother.

The day was still early, so we decided that to fill the rest of the day we'd head to Matsumoto. To do so we returned to Nagano on the shinkansen, and since we were back at home base, and we knew we'd be walking through the streets of Matsumoto, possibly after dark, we returned to the hotel to pick up some warmer clothes.

Back to the station, grabbing some food on the run from the convenience store (which is becoming a regular occurrence) because it is quick and cheap, we got to the train platform with a few minutes to spare. Boarding a local train for the trip through the mountains, the first thing that you notice is how damn slow they are, after you've just stepped off a shinkansen. But the 52 minute journey on the local line, which takes you up and over the snow covered mountains on the south western side of Nagano, is absolutely stunning. While the view from the nagano shinkansen is pretty when you're not plowing through tunnels at 200km/h, the trip to Matsumoto has to be the most picturesque train journey I've been on.

Out onto the streets of Matsumoto, it wasn't long before I began asking "why didn't we stay here?!". The whole layout and apparent convenience of the place just seemed more friendly, easier, and just allround better than Nagano. If I'd had my time again I'd have booked a few days in Matsumoto, and skipped Nagano entirely.

But no matter. We walked from the train station, through some quiet backstreets, and were soon greeted with the sight of Matsumoto castle. In 3 trips to Japan I've seen a lot of impressive sights, both man-made and natural, and this castle is up there with the best of them. It isn't as imposing as Himeji castle, but both inside and out, it is quite simply stunning.

Matsumoto castle is one of Japan's most treasured original castles. Both inside and out it apparently retains much of the original features and woodwork.

On the outskirts of the castle grounds we walked around the castle, through the parklands, on the edge of the moat. It soon became obvious that we were being followed by tens, and possibly hundreds of massive, hungry looking coy fish. When I say massive, I estimate there were several fish in there over 2 feet long. Most of the fish were a horrible black/grey colour, but there was the occasional, white and orange speckled fish which really stood out.
The girls loved the fish. The fish should stick their heads above the water, and follow anyone walking along the edge of the moat, and if you held your hand out all of the fish would stick their heads out of the water with their massive mouths open, obviously waiting for whatever tasty morsel you were about to drop into the water. By the size of the fish, and their well rehearsed actions, this feeding is obviously a common occurrence.

We had the whole castle, and it's grounds, virtually to ourselves. So much so that there were times where we actually wondered whether we were allowed to be where we were, or whether we were somehow trespassing in an area off-limits to tourists. When we got to the gate of the castle, Veronica has to inquire whether it was actually open, since it was so quiet.

It was, and along with maybe 4 other people in the entire castle grounds we worked our way through the manicured parklands and into the castle.
The friendly little chap at the front was very insistent about the rules for shoe etiquette, which we're very familiar with by now, but we indulged him the opportunity to tell us about how we're not allowed to wear shoes inside, etc. As we were entering, we got an ominous warning from another patron who was just exiting, warning me that I should watch my head at all times. Duly noted.

He was right. The interior of the castle was a fantastic maze of wooden hallways, and steep, almost vertical staircases. The hallways were extra wide apparently to allow samurai in full battle armor quick and easy access around the perimeter of the castle, and the stairways were steep to give the upper hand to the castle defenders if attackers made it into the castle grounds and attempted to scale the stairs.

The views over the city of Matsumoto at sundown, which is circled on all sides by snow covered mountains, was pretty special. Within the castle itself, virtually no area is off-limits, so we were able to explore the whole castle by ourselves before cautiously returning to the ground floor.

The only downside of the visit was that Matsumoto castle ate my lens cap. I had it going in, but I didn't have it coming out. Somewhere in the halls of Matsumoto castle lies my lens cap off my new camera.
I took another walk through, and could not find it. Considering it was a black lens cap in a dark castle, against a knotted, dark wooden floor, I'm not surprised I didn't find it. The staff were great. The little man at the front desk was very helpful, and he even had a quick run through the castle in an attempt to find it before we'd left the castle grounds, but his efforts were unsuccessful. No matter. It gives me a good excuse to spend a little bit more time in the next Bic Camera or whatever other camera and electronics store we come across.

The train back from Matsumoto was the 6pm rush hour "express" on the local line, and as a result was packed with businessmen and peak hour commuters. As a result it was the most uncomfortable train ride of the trip so far. With no spare seats together Charlotte and Angela had to sit with a Japanese businessman each, and Veronica and I sat together with Isabelle on our knee for the 55 minute train ride.
Imagine catching a cramped 80km/h sauna with your clothes on, with a bunch of loud Japanese businessmen and no fresh air, for almost an hour, with 3 kids and a wife who don't want to be there. Unpleasant.

But we made it, and after that train ride, walking out into the crispness of the Nagano night was welcome. The large digital temperature gauge above Nagano station read -1 (degrees C) which cooled us down nicely on the short walk to the hotel.

On the agenda for tomorrow, assuming everyone is well enough are the snow monkeys, and who knows what else. Tomorrow will probably be another day that we make up as we go along.