I've now been to the city of Matsumoto twice, and I'm a very big fan of the city. On the last trip, I left the city after a day trip from Nagano really impressed, asserting that it would be a great place to spend more time in. A night stopover there has only reinforced this opinion.

It is a very picturesque city, surrounded by alpine mountain ranges. But the city itself just feels relaxed. The people never seem to be in too much of a hurry. There is not masses of traffic like in other large cities, and the streets and footpaths are wide enough to ensure that it never feels claustrophobic as you're travelling around. I love Kyoto dearly, and it is still my favourite city, but I'll go as far as to say Matsumoto is the most relaxed large city I've visited in Japan.

Also, Matsumoto is home to one of the must-see wonders of Japan, Matsumoto Castle, or the "Black Crow" castle, so named because of it's unusual black walls.
Because of its alpine elevation, cherry blossom season is only just reaching full bloom in Matsumoto now.

Charlotte and I went for a walk to Matsumoto castle this morning, and I don't think the castle gets much more picturesque than when we saw it today. On our last visit, we had great weather for our castle visit, and it was very pretty, but today, in the morning light, with the sakura in full bloom, and nobody else in the entire park, it was jaw dropping. Every photograph could be mistaken for a Matsumoto travel brochure or postcard.

The castle wasn't even originally on the agenda. I awoke at around 6am for some stupid reason, and decided to just go for a walk down to the train station to book tickets to ensure our journey to Tokyo later today was comfortable. That was, until I opened the window, and was greeted with the most fantastic morning weather we've had on the entire trip. Our room overlooks the alps to the West, and in the morning light they were spectacular, and it didn't take me long to shake Charlotte awake, grab the cameras and head out the door.

With last night's rain still pooled on the ground, and the early morning sun bathing the castle in a dim light, it was impossible to take a bad shot. I can only imagine that later today, when the masses awake and finish their hotel breakfasts, that this park, and the castle grounds, are going to be awash with tourists 5 people deep, doing exactly what Charlotte and I were doing by ourselves, at our own pace.

Time seems to fly in this situation, and an increasing number of joggers, dog walkers and business men looking at their mobile phones and watches alerted us to the fact that we'd spent over an hour wandering through the park among the cherry blossoms, so we decided to make haste in the direction of the train station, since we still had to book the train tickets, return to the hotel and have breakfast, and pack the bags ready to depart and catch the train.

Train ticket booking was simple and quick in the uncrowded station. Thanks again to the JR rail passes, which expire tomorrow. We've travelled pretty extensively on this trip, so once I'm home I plan to calculate just how much money the passes have saved us on this trip, just for giggles.
Returning to the hotel, Charlotte and I went straight to the breakfast restaurant, where Veronica, Angela and Isabelle were just finishing up. Breakfast was included in the cost of the hotel, and the breakfast included with this hotel was by far the best complimentary breakfast we've had with a room in Japan. The range was not huge, but it was fantastic, offering a variety of cereal and toast, rice, salads, pickles, eggs, vegetables and a magnificent egg, chicken and onion mixture allowing you to make your own chicken katsudon. This for me was a winner. I love katsudon, and had I been served this in a restaurant I would have been very happy. The fact that it was available for me to go back a few times and help myself to, I was in heaven.

The staff at the Super Lohas hotel Matsumoto were excellent. The most gracious and friendly hotel hosts in all of our stays in Japan, and they absolutely adored Isabelle. She got given quite a few different gifts, and they made such a big fuss when Isabelle gave them all big hugs.
As we were leaving, we presented them with a few Australian gifts which they were not expecting, since it is a semi-business style hotel, so it probably doesn't happen often. I think this really made their day. We got photos of the girls with the staff on our camera, and they asked if we could get the same photo on on of their phones to remember the girls by. We didn't expect this hotel to be anything more than a simple overnight place to sleep between the Alpine Route and Tokyo, but these trips are always full of surprises.

The train journey today consisted of a 2 hour "express" non-shinkansen to Nagoya, followed by a change to a shinkansen for the trip from Nagoya to Tokyo. We actually could have could an express non-shinkansen from Matsumoto directly to Tokyo, and saved ourselves a little over half an hour, but I opted not to for a few reasons. Firstly, this gives us one last opportunity to ride the bullet train, which is an experience in itself, no matter how many times you get to ride it. Second, the Nagoya to Tokyo bullet train passes Mt Fuji, so I suspected with the weather, and season, that there may be a chance of Fuji being in view, so I took my chances with the longer journey.

The train from Matsumoto to Nagoya was pleasant but uneventful, as was the shinkansen from Nagoya to Tokyo, with one exception. Mt Fuji. My gamble had paid off. The view of the mountain as we passed by was perfect. As we approached, I watched the map carefully, and since I was on the right hand side travelling East, and Fuji was North of the train tracks, I got up and staked out a claim at the train door at the end of the carriage, while Charlotte took over Veronica's window seat on the left hand side of the train. No matter how many times I see Fujisan it still blows me away. Climbing it is still on my bucket list.

With the last shinkansen of the trip done, we made it through the madness of Tokyo station and onto a local train to the Disneyland station Maihama. After some quick retail therapy at the Disney merchandise shop, with Isabelle suitably equipped with mouse ears for the upcoming days at Disneyland and Disney Sea, we found our complimentary shuttle bus, and headed for our hotel, the Disney Celebration hotel.

We knew exactly what to expect from this hotel, since we stayed here on our last trip. It was called something different back then, and wasn't an official Disney hotel like it is now, and the hotel has had some paint and cosmetic upgrades done, but it is essentially the same hotel.
One nice little bonus is that now that it is an official hotel we get passes to enter the park 15 minutes before the general admission scum, which we'll have to use wisely for our first fast passes and ride queuing of the day.

The park opens at 9am (8:45am for us) and closes at 10pm. It's going to be a massive, massive couple of days.