Day 5: Nagano City

With the cold winter snow outdoors, we were too nice and warm in our cosy room to be checking out early. Slept in for a bit before hiking to Karuizawa station with our luggages. The town was once again quiet, punctuated by the occasional tourist riding past on their rented bicycles.

There wasn’t anything left on the agenda besides queueing up for soba in Kyu Karuizawa, so we opted to see if we could switch our Shinkansen tickets to an earlier time. As there were many passengers alighting at Karuizawa to ski, we were able to secure seats on the 10:27am Asama bound for Tsuruga.

Nagano was a quick 30 minute ride away — enough time to get little bit comfortable but not too.

Arriving at Nagano station, we saw signs pointing to a vending machine that sells bus tickets to Jigokudani (Snow Monkey Park). Since we were visiting tomorrow, I thought I would take the chance to secure our bus tickets early. Wrong!

Turns out the bus tickets purchased are only valid for the day itself. It was a short hike to the nearby Alpico offices to get a refund. Oops. The staff were really nice about it — I suspect this happens way more often than I feel it does.

The weather was a bit drab in Nagano but we were determined to still explore around.

From Platform 3, we called the local bus towards Matsushiro, a former samurai town with many buildings still preserved. The bus journey was about 30 minutes and we fought the urge to alight midway to shop at the local mont-bell store. As it was running on a holiday schedule, the buses were only departing every 30 minutes.

Once again, our IC Suica cards were no good here and cash was the name of the game. Thankfully, the bus drivers are very patient and assisted us in making sure we gave the correct fare.

Arriving in Matsushiro, we were blown away by the vistas before us. Low rise buildings with snowy mountains in the background. Reminds me of Hobart.

Our first port of call was the Sanada Treasure Hall which was a 10 minutes walk away. It took a bit longer because we kept stopping for photos.

The whole district was quiet… because all the attractions were closed! Bummer. Another reminder not to trust Google listings because businesses (whether in Japan or anywhere else) don’t always update them. No matter, we decided to continue exploring the district as we are able to admire architecture from the outside.

Interestingly, the current Matsushiro Castle was authentically reconstructed in 2003. The original buildings were mostly dismantled in 1871 after the Meiji government was established and the remaining buildings were burnt down in 1873 due to arson.

Matsushiro Castle

44 Matsushiromachi Matsushiro, Nagano, 381-1231

It was time to catch the bus back to Nagano station and head towards Zenkoji Temple.

From Nagano Station, it was a short 10 minute ride away to the temple. Many of the buses at the station head to this iconic landmark, so be sure to check out the signage as well as the LED displays on top of the buses.

Most visitors alight at the Zenkoji Daimon and take the short walk up to the main temple. The streets are lined with various shops selling local snacks, souvenirs and various other trinkets. A familiar sight if you have been to any major temples in Japan. In the distance, is the Zenkoji Daimon (direct translation: Big Gate).

Something to keep an eye out for is this statue tucked away on the left as you approach the temple. I discovered that the statue marked the original site of the temple but because of its proximity back then to residences, the temple was constantly burnt down. Eventually, the site of the main hall was relocated to where it is today, further up north.

As Zenkoji was such a large temple, it houses many little wings that offer their own goshuins. We were able to get two different ones in addition to the ones we would later get from the main temple. Much of the site is picturesque, particularly as the snowfall intensified.

And… we’ve arrived! The main hall is massive, as is the crowd. On the right is a large Jizo statue erected to protected the main hall from further fire or natural disasters. Since closing time was fast approaching, we opted not to travel into the main hall and just enjoy the architecture of this magnificent building from the outside.

It is a magnificent sight for sure.

Zenkoji Temple

〒380-0851 Nagano, Motoyoshicho

We spotted a Beams store which shared a building with the temple’s souvenir store. Turns out, they stocked some special products that are usually not carried in their other stores. Cherry and I fell in love with different sashiko stitched bags that we could use for our Iaido uniforms. They were reasonably priced for sashiko fashion products too — each of them costing 950 yen ($100 AUD). As it was still snowing heavily outside, the staff were careful to provide us with a plastic cover that went over our paper bags… consider the irony of that (?)

With our new purchases in hand, we started our trek back to the hotel. Once again we opted for the scenic route by walking back to the hotel. A 35 minute walk, we passed by the Nagano Olympic Park, which was opened to commemorate Nagano as the host for the Winter Olympics in 1998.

At this point, we really picked up our pace. It was snowing pretty heavily and the cold was really beginning to get to us!

Settling into our hotel rooms for a rest, I opted to use the time to edit more photos and clear up some storage on my camera before we visited the Snow Monkey Park tomorrow.

An early night for us as we plan to wake up early to catch the 8.30am bus to Jigokudani and hopefully see some monkeys up close in their natural habitat.