Matsumoto

Matsumoto was a one night stop but now I don`t really remember why.  Still cool small town, cute streets, a castle - all in all a low key day. 

This street was full of bakeries, cafes and cool looking gift shops.  We couldn`t really indulge in the gift shops since we still have a fair bit of travelling.  We kept on repeating - five days in Tokyo, five days.

Didn`t stop us from indulging in bakeries though.  Michelle got this cheesecake to go, they placed it in a box with a little ice pack

wrapped it with fancy paper and a ribbon and all these in another plastic bag!  We are noticing Japan is all about presentation.  For a country that is super clean and that insists on recycling they use a ton of plastic bags!  Every little purchase is wrapped in plastic and placed in a larger bag.  I am just learning to shake my head and grab the item before they pull out the plastic bag.  I am not sure if that is considered rude or not. But end of the day we end up carrying the bags all around since there are hardly any garbage/recycling containers on the street.  The Americans said a garbage can bombing a number of years ago prompted the government to pull all garbage cans, some replaced with clear containers but usually in front of convenience stores.  We haven`t confirmed this story.  Anyway back to the goodies...all this wrapping was just so we could step across the street...

and enjoy the food on a bench under this arbour.  It smelled amazing.

After we trekked to the castle.  It was quite lovely but we were both too cheap to pay to go inside.

Apparently there were a bunch of samarai stuff we missed.  Oh well I am sure we can find similar in Kyoto.

That night for dinner we went to an 100 yen (~1 CDN) sushi place.  Sushi comes in these mini plates on a conveyer belt.  You have to be somewhat quick to grab the food!  Buffett and all you can eat bunched into this concept!

We indulged but all this for about 10 CDN each!

Next to the sushi place was a Pachinco place.  I`ve never heard of this before, but basically a large gaming place full of these claw like machines.  I don`t understand the fascination...

We followed dinner with a couple of hours at an onsen that felt amazing after walking around for the day.  Next Magome...