Narai/Matsumoto- Post #1-Sorry about the Delay

Yo Peeps!

As I promised, I will start my multi-day post about my Narai-Matsumoto trip from last week. I was hoping to have started this endeavor earlier, but as such happens in life, I got sick. Bleh. It was probably a touch of the real flu, not that pseudo-flu stomach virus. Just a simple sore throat, muscle aches and maybe a low-grade fever. So fun...Anyway, I feel much better and have been running around doing errands today. One errand I did today was to get a hanko. Now, a hanko is a round signature stamp that is made of Japanese characters. I created kanji,  or Chinese characters, for my last name and used them for my signature stamp. After I have picked it up and finished the multi-day Narai-Matsumoto trip post, then I'll do a post on hanko and a later post on the garbage schedule here in Japan.

So Narai and Matsumoto. These two places are in Nagano Prefecture. This prefecture is known internationally for hosting the 1998 Winter Olympics. By the way, the Nagano Games are the earliest Winter Games I remember watching. Betcha didn't know that!

Anway, Nagano Prefecture belongs in the Chubu region of Japan. Just like how the US has regions, Japan also has regions. Tokyo is in the Kanto Region (remember the Kanto Region in Pokemon, my fellow gamers!?). Kanto is just east of the Chubu region. Here's a regional map of Japan. For those who know of the old capital, Kyoto, it is in the Kinki Region, which is also known as the Kansai Region.

Here's another regional map that is overlayed with the prefectures. Tokyo is Prefecture 13, while Nagano is number 20. Which ever way we went, we had to go through one other prefecture to get from Tokyo to Nagano. Truthfully, I do not know which way we went to get to Nagano Prefecture, but boy was it pretty. The following photos were taken from our group's charter bus. This trip was paid for by our CSU tuition money, but many of our new Japanese friends came along as well. Mind you, the Japanese students had to pay for the trip later.

So we left Tokyo at, I think, 8:30ish in the morn. Our first stop was at Narai Road, which will be the next blog post. Then, after spending an hour at Narai Road, we went to Matsumoto to see the Matsumoto Castle, which will be the topic of the following post.

The travel time between Tokyo and Narai Road was about 3.5-4 hrs. So we got there around 12 noon. Then, the trip from Narai to Matsumoto was about 1 hr. For having traveled from one prefecture to another prefecture, it was not a very long trip. We got home at about 7-8pm that night. It was a full day, but I was able to catch up on some sleep between Narai and Matsumoto, as well between Narai and home.

So, I will restated it, the photos below were taken by me from our charter bus between Tokyo and Narai. There about 60 photos, which is why I have decided to make this a multi-day post. I hope you enjoy the scenery!!!!