Japan 2015 Day 12: travel from Matsumoto to Kanazawa

Weather: overcast with afternoon patches of rain 13°C, high 24°C

Accommodation: woke up at Ryokan Matsukaze; went to sleep at Hotel Pacific Kanazawa.

Trains: Matsumoto 10:07 –> Nagano 10:58
Nagano 11:25 –> Kanazawa 12:55

In the morning we packed up and checked out. While checking out I attempted to tell the host in Japanese that we enjoyed our stay, and his smiles, nods, and the friendly sounding words he responded with made me glad I had at least tried. While we were getting ready to leave walk to the station when he came around and said something with the word ‘ekimae’. As that means train station, and as I’d read in reviews that if the host has time he offers lifts to the train station, we smiled and nodded and arigatou gozaimasu-ed. We were soon headed to the station in his mini-van – which was very welcome as the streets to the train station didn’t have footpaths and were kinda a pain to walk, especially with our bags.

Eskil hugged the octopus statue outside a Takoyaki restaurant at the station. He loved the various kawaii characters we saw as we travelled around Japan.

Outside of main cities we were almost a spectacle with people – especially with youngsters who loved waving, smiling, and giggling and elderly people who loved to stop and call Eskil ‘kawaii’.

I got train reservations for between Matsumoto and Kanazawa (with a transfer in Nagano), then Scott and Eskil rushed off on some errand – I assumed to get breakfast. I got our coffees from Starbucks while I waited, but Scott was taking a long time and I was really wondering what had happened. Had Eskil had a toilet emergency? Why the hell did he ask for their passports? He seemed cheerful and excited but was he abandoning the trip here?! And if so how?! He finally got back, and he had made a jewellery shop open up early so he could buy me a Swiss rail watch I’d wanted since I lived in Switzerland – with a red band! I absolutely love it!

While waiting on the train platform, we met a nice young American guy. He had been camping in Kamikochi and has grandparents in Nara. We had a lovely chat. The train to Nagano was SO CLEAN, and the scenery was stunning. Nagano is on the list of places that need more exploration – one day.

We were certainly getting the hang of train travel.

To be honest, Eskil is a bit of a pain on trains (and buses – and walking around – and in restaurants). He loved Scott making up stories for him, but the story has to go the way he wants. Often he doesn’t know what he wants; he’s just bored and cranky. He wrote and used his stamps in his notebook a lot, and he was also very interested in learning to write numbers and letters and understanding symbols we saw on the train.

We arrived at Kanazawa around 1 pm. It was a much bigger train station than I thought it would be! We made our way to the tourist information centre, and the woman there was actually too helpful. She took a long time to give me information I already had (and as she was putting so much effort into it I felt like I couldn’t stop her), went out of her way to try to find different bus timetables instead of just saying ‘catch any bus to Omi Cho Market’, etc. However she did tell us where the bus trip information counter was – the main thing I wanted – and we went there and paid for and reserved a rip to Shirakawago and Takayama for the next day.

We caught a VERY crowded bus to Omi Cho Market (which had the only 2 rude people in all of Japan on it). The market is FABULOUS! So much fresh produce and fish and vendors – really fun to walk through.

We found our hotel easily right behind the markets. We had a lovely room, there was a café downstairs, and we had western beds and a private bath/shower. After a week and a half of futons and shared showers this was really blissful! And PROPER TOWELS!

We went out for a little exploring through the market and local shops, then went back to the hotel for a brief rest. Later we went out for dinner and wound up trying a place called Sukiya at the end of our street. It was really good with cheap donburi; Eskil even got and ate his own children’s curry donburi.

We got beer on the way back to the hotel then had showers with soft, fluffy, full-sized towels, good water pressure, and a hair drier. As we were going to be here for 3 nights, it was even exciting to give our bags a bit of a clean-out and sort laundry.