Stark with moat and a red bridge. This is the Matsumoto-jo, also known as the crow castle. Coincidently, tons of big (fat) crows can be spotted in the vicinity. The dark colour comes from a combination of wood and stone.

Matsumoto castle is an original keep from 1500s! It is only damaged by earthquake and neglect (was tilting like Pisa), but it is all good now. It is listed as a national treasure of Japan. Madness to think that at some stage the Japanese considered demolition.

There are only 12 original castles in Japan:

  1. Himeji, Hyogo prefecture **Largest and best preserved; never fallen, hence called ‘the white hero’. She is the only one that is listed as UNESCO world heritage.
  2. Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture
  3. Matsue, Shimane prefecture
  4. Bitchu-Matsuyama, Okayama prefecture
  5. Maruoka, Fukui prefecture
  6. Hikone, Shiga prefecture
  7. Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture ==> feature 400+ years old Sakura tree…
  8. Inuyama, Aichi prefecture
  9. Kochi, Kochi prefecture
  10. Marugame, Kagawa prefecture
  11. Uwajime, Ehime prefecture
  12. Iyo-Matusyama, Ehime prefecture

Everything else are replica / reconstruction. I will do a bit more castle posts. Please hang in there.

The garden around the Matsumoto castle was pleasant and well groomed. I was too obsessed with trying to take a perfect reflection shot, so I sat around the moat like an idiot waiting for the light to change…

Matsumoto

 

There were benches next to the moat. It was just perfect for hanging around to wait for the correct lighting. I didn’t do the 10 hour craziness like Miyajima, I only waited for 2.5 hours for this one. After 100 shot of failure, I called it a day >_< perhaps better luck for me next time.

Matsumoto city walk was well worth it. The below photo was of a book store that has been around for 100+ years. The building was the original thing. It looked like such a misfit next to its modern neighbours. The frog sculpture was not Naruto related. I was fooled too.

Matsumoto Matsumoto

How to get here?

JR Matsumoto station. Walk is only around 15min? The city walk is well worth it. I highly recommend skipping the bus.

**The bus takes almost the same amount of time as walking lol

http://www.matsumoto-castle.jp/

Matsumoto jo, crow castle

Nearby: Wasabi farm and Azumino country side walk

 

Please be a sweetheart & follow one of my social media xox

Bloglovin’ / Google+ / Twitter / Instagram / FacebookPinterest

Author

Salut, I am Joyce. 40 something living in Paris. Appreciate little things and share giggles. Prudent, no nonsense reviews. #ExploreLaughRepeat

377 Comments

  1. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?

  2. Я прочитал эту статью с большим удовольствием! Автор умело смешал факты и личные наблюдения, что придало ей уникальный характер. Я узнал много интересного и наслаждался каждым абзацем. Браво!

  3. If you are going for most excellent contents like me, only go to see this web site all the time since it offers feature contents, thanks

  4. Автор предоставляет примеры и иллюстрации, чтобы проиллюстрировать свои аргументы и упростить понимание темы.

  5. Я хотел бы выразить свою благодарность автору за его глубокие исследования и ясное изложение. Он сумел объединить сложные концепции и представить их в доступной форме. Это действительно ценный ресурс для всех, кто интересуется этой темой.

  6. Я благодарен автору этой статьи за его тщательное и глубокое исследование. Он представил информацию с большой детализацией и аргументацией, что делает эту статью надежным источником знаний. Очень впечатляющая работа!

  7. Важно отметить, что автор статьи предоставляет информацию с разных сторон и не принимает определенной позиции.

  8. Эта статья действительно заслуживает высоких похвал! Она содержит информацию, которую я долго искал, и дает полное представление о рассматриваемой теме. Благодарю автора за его тщательную работу и отличное качество материала!

  9. I always used to study piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a user of web thus from now I am using net for posts, thanks to web.

  10. Отличная статья! Я бы хотел отметить ясность и логичность, с которыми автор представил информацию. Это помогло мне легко понять сложные концепции. Большое спасибо за столь прекрасную работу!

  11. Please let me know if you’re looking for a article author for your blog. You have some really great articles and I feel I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please shoot me an e-mail if interested. Regards!

Reply To https://woods-fund.ru/ Cancel Reply