Matsumoto + Lake Suwa – Feb ’24: part three

It doesn’t really warrant a part three, but the last post was picture heavy, so I’ve split it.

Before breakfast I went down to the onsen and it was just me!

Breakfast was amazing. The lady was talking to me, asking about what I eat/don’t eat and said that it was helpful eating katsuo dashi. So, if you can be flexible in Japan, they can usually offer you something inline with what you can eat – it’s a different debate about whether you should have to be flexible but I will be, so it was good enough for me.

We ...

Matsumoto + Lake Suwa – Feb ’24: part two

Lake Suwa doesn’t sound great in English (especially if you’re used to the water in England at the moment), better to go with the Japanese name, Suwa-ko.

We arrived fairly early and it was cold! No odd socks today, I had thermal leggings on. We took the local train from Matsumoto (half the price and only about 15 minutes longer – who’s winning?) and got off at Shimo-Suwa Station. We practically ran to get coffee and a piece of banana bread – really nice because it wasn’t overly sweet.

I don’t know when I started liking shrines so much and ...

国内旅行: Tokyo to Hagi 2of6

It was kimono class today but the teacher just dressed me, so not much was learnt. I’ve only ever worn a yukata before and that was nice and breezy. The kimono nearly killed me – it was so tight I could only take little, short gulps of breaths but not really breathe out. I was wrestled into it but I was a little too long. The kimono was my husband’s grandma’s who has sadly passed away now, but it was a nice memory and I hope if she was watching, she wasn’t too upset with my ungainliness.

I didn’t walk
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climbing mt. fuji – 17th august 2018

So you want to climb Fujisan? You’re thinking, ‘I’m in Japan, it’s a great idea! A once in a lifetime opportunity’. Well I’m here to say, think again! Well, not really, it’s your life, but I’ll tell you what, I don’t have fond memories of my time spent on that mountain and if I could do it all again, I wouldn’t. I’d just go to station 5 and come home and be very content with that. If I haven’t put you off already, I encourage you to read on!

rental stuff

We rented our waterproofs and boots from here ...