[samtcy] Consolidated 2 Japan trips (Kansai + One Piece exhibition + Tokyo + Nagano)

[samtcy]

601) Finally arrived at the entrance of the snow monkey park


602) Dos and don'ts


603) Admission fees


604) Yup, there's toilet facilities here...


605) Finally....

 

[samtcy]

306) The first monkey I saw that morning...


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310) Drinking...

 

[samtcy]

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[samtcy]

316)


317) Taking train from Yudanaka to Nagano station.


318) Our room at Chisun Grand Nagano hotel (17040yen for total of 3 nights...so average 6000yen per night)


319) View of the railway tracks from our room window


320) After alighting from the bus, we had a lovely stroll towards Zenko-ji

 

[samtcy]

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[samtcy]

326) Gate to Zenko-ji


327) Zenko-ji


328) Fortune pouch


329) Rilakkuma fortune pouch


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[samtcy]

331) Nozawana steam bun. As mentioned in my earlier post, this type of veg (Nozawana) is commonly available in many parts of Nagano prefecture.


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[Jargon]

Hi TS, just curious, do you use a tripod for your photos or are they mostly handheld shots?

 

[samtcy]

handheld. never brought tripod to japan.

 

[samtcy]

Trip 2 (Dec 2012) Day 7: Daytrip to Narai and Matsumoto
We started out this day extremely early by catching the 0609am Ltd Express train from Nagano to Shiojiri (about 1hr journey) and then change another local train from Shiojiri to Narai (22mins journey, but wait 1hr for train transfer at Matsumoto). Today's a much colder day compared to the previous few days of our trip. Around -5 degrees celcius on this day...compared to the above 0 degrees on the previous days.

We could have arrived at Narai around 0830am, but we went over our stop by 1 station (because we weren't able to get the train door to open) so took us an extra 40mins waiting for the opposite directional train to get back 1 stop to reach Narai. Sigh...

Narai is an old Post Town in Kiso Valley near Matsumoto. Since it's located between Kyoto and Tokyo so in the olden days, merchants will stop by in 1 of the Post Towns in Kiso Valley on their way between Kyoto and Tokyo.

After Narai, we headed for Matsumoto. Visited the castle and shopping streets. And then headed back to Nagano in the evening and had dinner back at Nagano.

335) 5:45am at Nagano station


336) Taking a Ltd Exp train from Nagano to Shiojiri.


337) Exterior of Shiojiri station. Waited for about 1hr here (minus 3 degrees celcius) to transfer to another local train to go Narai.


338) We weren't able to get the train door to open at Narai (even though we pressed the door open button) so we end up alighting 1 stop after Narai, which was Yabuhara station. Eventually we realised that not all train doors open on this particular line, seems like only the doors near the train driver will open.


339) Opposite Yabuhara station. Nothing much around here though. We had to wait 40mins for the next train in the opposite direction to bring us back to Narai station. Trains along this route is extremely infrequent with only 1 train every couple of hours.

 

[samtcy]

340) Finally, the train arrived at Yabuhara


341) View from the train, somewhere between Yabuhara and Narai I think


342) Finally arrived at Narai 0920am! (We left Nagano station around 6am in the morning)


343) Narai station


344) Narai old town

 

[samtcy]

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348) 1 of the shops selling local snacks


349) This shop sells products made with wood (bowls, spoons, chopsticks...etc)

 

[samtcy]

350) The preserved old town noticeboard.


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352) The railway tracks


353) Took a break at this cafe


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[samtcy]

355) Inside


356) Grape drink


357) Coffee (500yen)


358) Took this retro looking train from Narai to Matsumoto. We had to physically pull the door open when we boarded at Narai station (although the door opened automatically when we were alighting at Matsumoto). Haha.


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[duffydufs]

CONGRATS to your win Ms Sam

 

[samtcy]

CONGRATS to your win Ms Sam

Thank you

 

[KYFoong]

Sam, your fan here likes to see more.... You could have made a trip to Karuizawa and Saku while at Nagano. Both are great places to visit. Karuizawa may be more crowded due to its fame but Saku is a small city which is beautiful too. Thanks for the memories re-lived.

 

[samtcy]

Sam, your fan here likes to see more.... You could have made a trip to Karuizawa and Saku while at Nagano. Both are great places to visit. Karuizawa may be more crowded due to its fame but Saku is a small city which is beautiful too. Thanks for the memories re-lived.

I wanted to go Karuizawa, but the only time I could have fit it in was on our way back to Tokyo from Yudanaka...and we decided not to since we were carrying luggages and also we prefer to go Nakano Broadway at Tokyo for that day.
Actually, we only wanted to go see snow monkeys and enjoy some snow in Nagano, a more relaxed pace instead of squeezing too many places. Plus we had the limitations of our JR East Pass since we only got the 4 day flexible pass.

 

[samtcy]

360) Walking from Matsumoto station towards Matsumoto castle. It's about a slow 30mins stroll. Could have been faster if we didn't stopped to take photos.


361) Still walking...


362) Matsumoto's manhole cover


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364) Interesting looking bookstore (I think)

 

[samtcy]

365) Matsumoto castle


366) Matsumoto castle


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368) Admission fees 600yen. Since it was pretty late by the time we arrived there (and we still wanted to go to a few other places before the sun goes down), so we chose not to enter the castle.