Sunday, April 29, 2018

Visiting Matsumoto/Carlos Pueblo


Visiting Matsumoto/Carlos Pueblo
We took an advice from two ladies staff at Shizuoka station to take Shinkansen
back to Nagoya station and transferred to an express trains to Matsumoto. It
was turned out exceptionally across the Japanese Alps with mountain view with
snow cap peak far away. It also reminds me my experience in the American West
and New England except I am not worrying about the road side. It is an advantage
of Japanese railroad systems, comfortable, efficient, and comfortable for a long
journey. After checking in to the hotel nearby the famous Castle, we marched to
top three ranking Castles of Japan to join a good size of visitors. It was a beautiful
day.

I did have a similar train riding experience last time when I travel on the coastal
line of the Sea of Japan. I cut down to the southwest from Kanazawa to Osaka
via Lake Biwa. There are so many lovely mountain townships with hot springs to
offer and farms, temples, and castles to visit similar to this route, the heart of the
rural of Japan. I can stop at any town one after another to enjoy hanami, spring
blossom, or fall foliage, koyo. The advantage is that I don’t have to drive. Another
of my dream is to meet the harvest of peaches, nectarines, purple grapes that I
have seen so many vine type of farms along the way.

On the second day of Matsumoto after the first afternoon of the Castle tour, we
went to visit Nagano, about one hour train ride to finish the rest of Nagano Express
from Nagoya a day before. We went to visit the Zenkoji Buddhist Temple. A day after
Nagano, I kept on going to visit Karuizawa to locate the famous Michiko tennis courts
where the Empress met her future Emperor husband. Amy went on to see the inside
of the Castle. We ran into each other on a street corner near the station.

Matsumoto’s visit was short yet very relax. I felt that I should do more study before
I go to visit more places of interesting such as the Shinshu University not far away
from the hotel. It is a national university derived from an old 9th Kodougako, 9th
senior school after middle school before the War. I visited the 4th at Kanazawa in
2016 and was graduated from Taiwan Normal which was derived from Taihoku
Kodogako before 1945. I’ll explain it when I write about the Castle and the city.

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