My view during breakfast, prepared by the owner of the hotel. I ate apples, eggs, lettuce, and a bit of sausage, while we talked about living in Japan, the US, and Europe, and the medical systems in each.

This is a way of launching and docking a boat I’ve not seen before.

I watched boats and birds this morning.

On my way from Kurohime to Nagano City.

I had the equivalent of a train layover in Nagano.

This is the view from the fourth floor of the Nagano train station.

The Shinkansen from Nagano to Tokyo spent a lot of time in tunnels; this blue sky was blinding every time we emerged. The group of poles and netting on the right is either a driving range (like Top Golf in the US) or a baseball field. I saw plenty of both.

Why couldn’t I have had skies like this yesterday?

Passing through Saitama, much ridiculed by Tokyo but also home to Crayon Shin-chan.

The building on the right is Ueno Station.

The tall tower there is Tokyo Skytree, which is the tallest freestanding broadcast tower (and the third tallest structure) in the world at 2080 feet tall.

I thought the dinosaur was cute.

Entering the area in Asakusa around the extremely famous Sensō-ji Buddhist temple.

The market street leading up to the temple is packed with people.

This is the Hōzōmon, or Treasure-House Gate, which is the inner gate (if I had braved the throng of people down the market street, I would have seen the outer gate).

A five-story pagoda.

The big red lantern weighs approximately 880 lbs.

The main hall. This temple is dedicated to Kannon, she who represents mercy and compassion. It is the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

The giant red lantern of the main hall.

According to my map, this is the “Monument of Hato-poppo Lyrics.” This is a nursery song about feeding pigeons, which is kind of funny because the temple absolutely does not want you feeding pigeons. Because poop.

The main hall, with a pigeon trying to sneak by in the shadows.

Looking back towards the gate. Lots of shops in this neighborhood offer kimono rental services for men and women, as well as hair decoration.

The buildings on either side of the gate sold amulets and charms.

The backside of the giant lantern in the Hōzōmon Gate.

On either side of the lanterns is a Niō, or guardian of the Buddha.

Please help stop the feces problem.

Statues of Buddha.

Looking down (but not going down) the market street.

Another view of the market street.

The street parallel was a lot less crowded. “It has been said since ancient times that dragon drool brings good luck.” I don’t really want a dragon slobbering in my noodles.

Some more shopping areas in Asakusa.

This guy is smart, having his umbrella ready. The blue skies were replaced by a thunderstorm about two hours after this.

Heading towards the Skytree, since my hotel is in that direction.

The golden building (supposed to be beer with white head of foam on top) and the golden flame are the Asahi Brewing company offices, restaurant, and craft beer tasting rooms.

The Sumida River.

Another view of Asahi, but now with Pikachu vending machines!

Randy is a talking, rapping backpack encouraging elementary school children to introduce themselves in English.

I finally found some Budweiser! ¥231, or $1.55, for 330 mL.

I’ll have these over the next couple of days. I really like Japanese grape Fanta; have not tried Japanese Dr. Pepper yet. It has “over 20 fruit flavors.”

Even in the middle of nowhere, manhole cover.

The view from the Fairy Tale Museum.

The Fairy Tale Museum.

The Michael Ende section takes up about a third of the museum. It was clear from letters in there that Ende had a big hand in helping the museum get established.

I could not take photos in most of the exhibit, unfortunately, but it had a ton of his original artwork as well as things from his childhood.

Kurohime is the name of this part of Shinano, and the name of the mountain /dormant volcano the museum sits at the base of. Kurohime was a princess whose father reneged on a promise to marry her to a snake-prince, who then transformed into a dragon and destroyed a lot of the area before the princess decided to ignore her dad and go with the dragon/snake prince. At least that’s the gist of what I got from the video. I bought a book with the story in it to read later.

Turtle outside the café.

This cottage, which belonged to Japanese illustrator Chihiro Iwasaki, is part of the museum grounds.

This is what her work area looked like.

These steep stairs were giving me anxiety flashbacks to the castle yesterday.

There were lots of beautiful flowers.

A cherry blossom tree planted “in memories of Michael Ende and of Kurohime” for the death of Koyasu Michiko, a fellow Steiner-fan who had spent a lot of time in Munich, was a close friend of Ende’s, and had translated some of his later works into Japanese.

Sign pointing the way to “Momo’s Time-flower Garden”

Another view of the Dōwakan, or Fairy Tale Museum.

I never got a glimpse of the top of this mountain thanks to the clouds. Mt. Kurohime is 2,200-something meters tall; the one just north had an extra 200 meters, and, according to the owner of my hotel tonight, the peak has had snow on it since last week.

Part of the Time-flower Garden.

More flowers.

What’s a Time-Flower Garden without a turtle?

A final shot of the landscape as I mentally prepare myself for the walk down.

The manhole covers in all of the Shinano area feature Naumann’s elephant.

The Pied-Piper calls you in.

My haul from the museum gift shop. Two large booklets on Ende, including a detailed list of the 2000 items of his they have in archive. A bilingual picture book in homage to Michael Ende and his surrealist painter father, with illustrations directly inspired by Ende’s “The Mirror in the Mirror.” A book of Japanese folk tales involving ghostly metamorphoses, including the story of Kurohime. A small turtle seated on a block. And a pin with the Kurohime Fairy Tale Museum’s book-turtle logo.

Solar panels.

I think this was a cable car for going up the mountain?

Most of these signs point to various guest houses people stay at during ski season.

Retaining wall with some vine (kudzu?).

Even though it was grey and cloudy, it was still a beautiful walk.

Former ski lift?

Blowing in the wind.

The path goes ever on and on…

The sign warning about the incline fell over. Not sure if that made the incline worse.

Japanese chestnuts - the annoying pokey thing on the left is filled with nuts like on the right. Foot, which got poked a couple of times on my walk, for scale.

The daily dose of train porn.

Couldn’t fine any information on this in my map. Grave? Memorial?

Look at this little lizard! He was doing too good of a job blending into the road - I almost stepped on him!

Overgrown Torii gate on the side of the road.

These beautiful red lilies could be seen at various points during my train ride through Nagano as well.

I stopped at the Lake Nojiri Naumann Elephant Museum.

I’m not sure what he’s doing to that elephant’s rear.

Some blue sky while at the elephant museum.

Naumann’s elephant is closer to our elephants than to mammoths. Not so hairy.

The area I trounced around today.

The museum also talked about the Irish Elk, whose fossils have also been found in the area. It wasn’t only elephants.

Tools for cutting from 30000 years ago until now (with a huge jump between 15000 years ago and now).

Try to touch it! Touch the tooth!

Panels go right-to-left, top-to-bottom.
October 1948
1. Mornings at Lake Nojiri feel great.
2. Whoa, what could this be?
3. Is it a hot water bottle? (The museum had a metal ridged hot water bottle on display so us youngsters wouldn’t think him crazy).
4. Nah, there’s that legend that long ago at Lake Nojiri a dragon and a giant crab fought, so maybe this is a dragon tooth!
5. 1954 - I’ll see if they can find out at Kyoto University.
6. Sensei, what is this thing?
It’s a molar tooth from a Naumann’s elephant.

Even Japan has to deal with invasive species. These Mississippi Red-Eared Turtles were presumably someone’s pets before being released at the lake.

The white building on the left is my hotel; I’m on the second floor.

A small break in the clouds right before the sun sets.

View from my window.

The little enclosed balcony/sitting room has some pretty windows.

Shrine on the island in the middle of Lake Nojiri.

My room tonight. Another no-shoes place. Tatami feels good on bare feet.

This is what an empty regular Shinkansen car looks like.

The scenery on the Shinano line from Nagoya towards Nagano is hard to photograph, but beautiful.

Train, car, river, and mountain in parallel.

The skies were grey when I exited the station.

There were lots of wildflowers on the way to the museum.

Fields either held food crops (lots of which had had rice) or wildflowers.

You could experience the making of an Ukiyo-E woodblock print using stamps. There were three different designs of 4 to 5 colors each.

Only a small portion of the ten thousand prints held here are displayed at a time (and in darkened conditions) to help preserve them. The current exhibit was themed around fashion and makeup.

A few classics were also on display. I’m a huge fan of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, so was excited to see some of his. It was really cool getting to see these prints in real life.

Two of my favorite Utagawa Kuniyoshi prints are on the top row.

Field of what was rice, with kids playing baseball behind that.

I think this is my first time seeing eggplant attached to its plant.

Believe it or not, five minutes later I was surrounded by buildings and cars.

Here come the buildings! I think a much higher percentage of people in Matsumoto drive than in the other places I’ve been.

Overpass crossing train tracks. Sign says in big letters “No skateboarding! No dancing!”

Matsumoto Castle was built in 1594 and is one of the few which have survived to now without having to be completely rebuilt (during the Meiji era it was unfortunately believed modernization meant completely abolishing the past).

Its nickname is the Crow Castle, due to its black color, but the most common bird I saw was the pigeon.

Pigeons looking regal.

There are koi fish in the moat happy for snacks (though the pigeons did their best to get the food first).

A gathering of koi.

Red bridge, black castle, and grey pigeons.

The entrance unfortunately is on the opposite side of the castle; the bridge is not open.

Matsumoto City’s mascot Alp-chan.

I then joined the long line to go inside the castle and up all six floors of the tower.

I watched him draw directions for someone in the gravel using the hilt of his short sword, as well as pose for countless photos with visitors.

Still in line, but closer.

There was a lot more decoration than I was expecting for a battle-oriented fortification.

View from the second floor. All visitors have to remove their shoes and place them in a bag while in the castle. I didn’t know about this beforehand, and so sockless I, along with a little girl and one old man, were the only left barefoot.

Armor of a gunman. One of the people who helped finance the modern day castle upkeep also collected historic guns used while the castle was active. Many of these were on display on the second floor.

View of the line outside from the sixth floor. The “stairs” were the most vertical scary stairs I’ve ever been up or down. You are prohibited from photographing around them for completely understandable safety reasons. The red seats in the upper left hand corner were where people in fancy kimono and suits were engaged in traditional tea ceremony.

Another view of the line-side, with a bit of the food tents surrounding the castle. The city is having a soba festival right now.

The bridge from six stories up.

Another version of Matsumoto City’s mascot Alp-chan, outside the castle gate.

A swan nestles against the castle foundations.

A number of street crossing signs have parallel rows of dots that count down to when the light will change.

I hope to sleep this well tonight.

A fun frog statue.

Determined cats on a bridge.

Red flowers on the bridge; mountains in the back. Almost makes me think of Garmisch.

The largest pendulum clock in Japan graces the outside of the Matsumoto Timepiece Museum.

The manhole covers depict temari, a local craft.

A cheeky bar I passed.

A side street in Matsumoto.

Panorama of my room.

Bathroom. The tub is one you sit in. They provide an envelope of bath powder, but I’ll be passing as it unfortunately contains milk ingredients.

The phone looks fun.