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 I don’t even think I would say that I do but I seem to be at them all the time. I think I like the ones in nature, where you can just feel peaceful. This was Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya.

Practically next to the shrine is Honjin Iwanami House and this really is a must see. You really should make the time to go if you’re in the area. My pictures don’t capture it well but it was amazing and the man running it was very kind. (The match is not a regular thing, he specifically said, 「特別」.

We got the bus back at the train station and we hopped off at Takeya Miso to get ice cream (me) and ramen (my husband).

I know it looks really nice and sunny, but the snow still being there kind of let’s you know how cold it actually was – it was incredible and the wind, it was awful.

Still, we got our steps in and landed at our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Lalba Suwako run by a husband and wife team (I am assuming) and it was great. They were incredibly accommodating and were able to cater for me as a vegetarian (I was ok with katsuo dashi because in Japan I will be lenient on it). We got bed, breakfast, dinner, lake-view room and a free reserved onsen for 45 minutes for ¥13,960 for BOTH of us! That’s incredible.

We left our things and went to visit Takashima Castle. Hardly anyone there, great views and I got a free card for being foreign. My husband never gets anything like that because he doesn’t look foreign and my foreign-ness outdoes him every time, so he had to just peer on jealously. Some of the moat around the castle was frozen.

A quick drink stop at Ambird – chai latte and ginger milk.

Back for dinner with lots of tofu :)

I think only us and a family of four were staying. We went to the onsen at 20:00 and it was bliss.
Emily