Our summer road trip to the western side of Japan was such a blast. Our good friends had recommended most of the places that we traveled to. I was super excited to see a different side of Japan than we are used to seeing. Little did we know when we were planning this trip (a bit last minute) that the week Mike took leave was also the same week that EVERYONE in Japan takes leave for their summer break called Obon. We knew that we would probably hit traffic on our way out of the city but we desperately needed a family vacation before school started so we went anyways. We spent an additional 1 1/2 hours on both ends of the trip because of traffic but it was well worth it. We were so glad that we had rented a van from the base because the rental came with passes to all the tolls and a newer and bigger car to ride in. This definitely made our drive more comfortable! The first day we drove to Matsumoto to see the castle there. Matsumoto Castle is located in the city of Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture and was built in 1504. It is Japan's oldest castle tower and is known as the "Crow Castle" because of its black exterior. It was originally called Fukashi Castle. It is a unique castle among Japanese fortresses because it is built on flat land beside a swamp, rather than being on a mountain or between rivers. It's lack of natural defenses meant that it had to be extremely well-constructed in order to protect the people living inside. For that reason, the castle was surrounded by a triple moat and extraordinarily high, strong stone walls. The fortress included three different rings of fortifications; an outer earthen wall almost 2 miles around that was designed to deaden cannon fire, an inner ring of residences for the samurai, and then the main castle itself. We were in awe of its pure awesomeness when we entered the grounds and saw it up close. The boys were especially excited to see a black castle. Of course we had to wait to get inside. Once inside we got to go all the way to the very top of the castle. The kids loved it. I thought it was interesting but didn't love the wait as we got closer to the top, and Abby at first was scared because it had some dark places but then she was ok with it. While we were in the castle it started to rain outside. We were happy to be inside because we didn't have any umbrellas. Once we made it through the castle the sun came out and we could finally see the blue sky. It was beautiful.
After we finished exploring the castle grounds we headed up into the mountainside on the outskirts of the city to find our camping site. Since trying to stay anywhere in Japan burns a major hole in your wallet we opted for the cheaper route which ended up being way more expensive than most camping sites in the US but way cheaper than staying in an old Japanese inn and paying $500-$700 for 1 night... wowzers! In Japan you pay by person to stay in a hotel rather than by room. It kind of stinks for a family of 6. We were lucky to get the very last camping site when we made our reservations. It was a bit different than we were used to because we were in the "communal" camping area. Basically we pitched our tent on a big field of grass. There was no fire pit, no picnic table, and no trees over our campsite. It was not like we were used to but we made the most of it and it turned out just fine. Afterall, it was just a place to sleep. We still got to roast marshmallows on a coal grill that we had to rent because we didn't bring our own grill (thinking there would be a fire pit). Thank goodness I didn't forget the marshmallows and chocolate because I forgot the hot dogs. We ate bagels for dinner instead. I don't usually sleep that well when we are camping because I am always worried about the kids being warm enough but it was plenty warm. I was shocked at how pleasant the weather was where we were...no humidity and it was not hot at all when we were sleeping. It was the best sleep I have ever had when camping.
