January 9, 2024

Today we backed up with some clean clothes to leave Nagano. We had a quiet morning at the inn and learned some Origami from the owners and had breakfast.

For today, we set off into rural Japan. In the way we stopped at Matsumoto Castle.

This was the first castle we have made it to. It is also one of the few castles is the Japan that is still original from Edo period. Built in 1594, it was really interesting.

As you enter, you take off your shoes. The first thing I noticed was how cold it was. The castle has beautiful wood inside but is very open air.

The castle was cool to see the levels and how they defended it.

From there we continued to our stay near Nagiso station. We stayed at Takimi Onsen. It is beautiful place.

Takimi has a hot spring so you got to use that before dinner and they provided dress for dinner and then bed. Also, there were slippers for each part of the house (as with other places we have stayed). It was a whole thing to keep up with but the larger issue was that none of the slippers fit.

We enjoyed dinner prepared around the open fire. Lots of good food and a nice time chatting.

Then…another outfit change after dinner.

Overall a good day. We settled down for bed and were ready for our hike tomorrow.