nakasendo 2024

Day 4: Matsumoto

Breakfast at Matsumoto before heading out for our free day ( i.e no hiking)

We got a shuttle into town. James, Julie and I put our backpacks in a locker at Matsumoto station. Lesley got dropped at the famous Matsumoto castle ( which we had seen before).

On our way to the Matsumoto city museum of art, we strolled down “doll “ street where there are shops displaying the most beautiful and intricate dolls.

The museum features a permanent exhibition by avant garde artist Yayoi Kusama who comes from Matsumoto. Aged 95, she suffered auditory and visual hallucinations in her childhood but turned these experiences into elements of her works , developing her own very unique style.

The exhibition was great. Amongst other things, she makes creative use of mirrors (no photos were allowed in this section)

Here is a picture of her today. Don’t you love her red hair!

In one of the galleries there was also an amazing sculpture carved out of Japanese cypress.

We stopped for coffee which took some time because it was almost like a performance

Then we wandered down some famous historic streets, Nawate and Nakamachi streets reminiscent of Edo times.

Got back to the station in time to board the Shinkansen to Karuizawa, via Nagano. (Lesley will have to fill you in on her morning in Matsumoto).

Karuizawa feels much more cosmopolitan than the towns we have seen to date. I think it’s a skiing area and there are lots of restaurants, bakeries, stylish shops and fashionable dogs.

On our way to our accommodation, we stopped to do a survey for a young student ( with his mum who happens to come from Tasmania!). As part of a school project,  the student had made speakers from repurposed materials and wanted to know what we thought of them. We gratefully obliged and filled in the survey.

The town was getting ready for Halloween

Another lovely dinner tonight