Backpacking

to locate the city's castle, which is one of the most original in Japan, having not been bombed or burnt down like so many others. It's quite an evil looking thing, dark blue and black as opposed to the usual fairytale white, with a moat around filled with huge coy carp.

We met up with the other two, who had been unceremoniously woken by the landlady, and

returned to explore the inside of the castle. It was a real boy's dream castle with slits for shooting arrows through, gaps for dropping boiling oil and stones on unwelcome visitors, and secret passages. Nowadays, the main hazards for invaders are the steep stairs between tiers and the low beams.

Across from the castle was a museum about Matsumoto's history, which we visited next. We really appreciated Tak being there as all of the exhibits were in Japanese.

To continue our culture drive we took a visit to the Print Museum, at which some Japanese wood block prints created around the 19th century were displayed. The highlight was not the art (although impressive), but a slideshow we were ushered into on arriving. various prints were displayed on the screen, accompanied by a Japanese and then English commentary on tape. the commentary had been performed by someone who sounded like a cross between Yoda and Mr Bean, and his "fluent Engrish" (i.e. terrible English) had us stifling sniggers of laughter in the darkness.

Hours of trampling around in the snow had soaked our feet through, and we positively rejoiced when we found socks for sale in a 99 Yen shop (every item the equivalent of 50p). Dry feet for the train journey to Kyoto: priceless.