Only two more nights left on the trip. We started making our way north from Mt. Fuji
to a city in Nagano called Matsumoto. We
were going to see an original Japanese castle.
(The same one Karl went to see last summer.)
After a few hours on the train, we arrived. For our one night stay in Matsumoto, we
stayed at a ryokan. This one was a
completely different style from our ryokan in Kyoto, but also nice. The people who run the ryokan speaks English
extremely well and even shuttled us to and from the train station for
free. So kind of them!
After getting settled in and having some tea, the ryokan
owners gave us some special English maps that their daughter had made. They showed exactly where the castle was and
had great descriptions of places to shop and eat. This map came in very handy that
afternoon.
After seeing the castle (unfortunately there were no English
guides and not many signs were in English…can’t win them all!) we wandered
around and did a little shopping.
We still had a few hours left of the day and weren’t quite
sure what to do.
Then we got an idea: using the little map, we plotted out a course of international
cuisine restaurant/bar hopping. It was
perfect! Everything was in walking
distance of each other and we would be able to try lots of different
foods.
Stop number 1: Spain
We had some delicious appetizers and some beer. It was excellent.
Stop number 2: China
Jasmine tea, dumplings, and egg rolls. Delicious.
Stop number 3: Italy
We were ready to have actual dinner at this point. We ordered a beautiful salad, pizza, pasta,
wine, and chocolate cake to finish. Fabulous.
We made it back to the ryokan in time to relax in the little
onsen (natural hot spring) before it closed.
A great way to wrap up any evening!
*drool*
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