From modern Osaka, Steven and I headed north toward Nagano to Matsumoto where we got a much more authentic experience at the Muramyo Ryokan. Before you ask “Why Charles did you end up going to Matsumoto?”, the answer is simple. When planning the trip, we googled “samurai castles” and Matsumoto Castle is the second coolest castle in all of Japan (behind Himeji). Check out more pictures here.

Here are things we learned in Matsumoto

• Japanese people are really nice. This guy was going to walk 10 minutes with us to our Ryokan when we got lost. It took a lot longer to explain to him that he didn’t need to escort us
• Even when it is snowing and freezing, Japanese girls still walk around wearing skirts. Crazy.
• Did I mention that Japanese castles are really amazing?
• Not a big fan of horse sashimi
• The really old ryokan was surprisingly very comfortable, not to mention the shared bathroom smelled very pleasant.

Swans

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