Again a pretty large upload of photos. Today’s post has pictures from day 3 and 4, when we went to Mount Fuji and Matsumoto castle. Both are pretty impressive sights, but while Fuji didn’t offer a lot in terms of photo opportunities, the castle proved a very nice “time travel” in Japan’s medieval past.
Both locations are easy to reach from Tokyo – at least with the Shinkansen. I strongly recommend seeing Matsumoto castle, as it is one of the top “original” castles in japan. First choice would be the famous Himeji castle, but as it was under extensive repairs we settled for the Matsumoto. A little background on Japan’s castles – there are two kinds: reconstructed ones (like Osaka castle) and the original ones (like Himeji and Matsumoto). In short, the original ones are far better as reconstructed ones have moved a bit far from the original architecture. Seeing a slender Japanese castle reconstructed with concrete and with gift shops everywhere is not my ideal sight. Not to say that Osaka castle does not look good – from the outside only though.
