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 ...