Face to Face with a Samurai and He Just Walked Away! Exploring Japan – Nagoya and Masumoto – Part II

Episode 349 – Exploring Japan Part II: We visit the Masumoto Castle and a historic Post Town named Magome-juku in Nagano. Castles, ninjas, samurais’, mountains, snow, and robot waiters? Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss additional episodes of our Japan travel adventure.

We’re RANDY 🧍‍♂️ and TERI 🧍‍♀️… Since 2013, we’ve been enjoying the retired life in the islands of the Western Pacific. From Guam to the Philippines and beyond, we are sharing slices of life from the Tropic Shade™ and the Far East! Beaches, Adventures, Culture, Food, and More!

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Oh what is this oh it’s a robot with our food chicken there more food all right now get out of here go did you My see You In our previous Japan video we traveled from Guam to Manila then on to ngoya Japan after arriving we took in the ngoya castle and met some real ninjas we hit a wine bar and later at the hotel I visited a Japanese bath house the next morning we were on the move north towards

Matsum Now today we’re at the Matsumoto castle and it’s freaking cold it’s uh I don’t know maybe about 35° we’re only at about 2,000 FT elevation hello you going in probably warmer in There car oh carp yeah the Matsumoto Castle is located in Matsumoto in the Nagano prefecture it is also known as Matsumoto Joe or Crow Castle it’s one of Japan’s Premier historic castles and a national treasur Matsumoto Castle dates back to the late 16th century specifically to the sangoku

Period known as the Waring period in Japanese history it was initially constructed around 154 but significant Renovations and expansions have been carried out over the years since that time the castle is a prime example of a flat land castle as opposed to a mountain castle it features a unique wooden

Interior structure which includes steep staircases wooden floors and openings for the samurai to defend the castle upon entering the castle visitors are required to take their shoes off while the castle was built during the Waring States period the castle actually never saw a battle and and

Instead of becoming a symbol of War it became a symbol of the people who worked so hard to protect it in 1930 the matsumuro castle was designated as a National Treasure of Japan recognizing its historical and cultural significance it’s one of only 12 castles in Japan to hold this

Distinction the Castle’s main keep has five stories but when you enter the keep you find that there are actually six floors by hiding the extra floor in inside the castle it was possible to hide more troops than the enemy would expect I also noticed that the stairs

Are quite Steep and they were built that way to prevent enemy troops from climbing the keep once you make get all the way to the sixth floor you can take a breather and appreciate the views of the city in the mountains do that again yeah give her a samurai

Sword look at that man he drank a lot of sake we Buri he retired as a warrior and went right into swimmer wrestling Buddha yeah the castle is a treasure Trove of weapons and armor used during the Waring States period as you climb up the castle keep you can see displays of Flint

Locked pistols rifles swords and other items that were used by a samurai over 400 years ago it’s kind of ironic though that such a great collection of Weaponry can be found at a castle that never saw battle like old bu that’s an old can

Yeah we got to go this way we got to go back up huh we got to go up these stairs now this is the third floor of the castle how many more floors we Got I didn’t make it I didn’t make it to the sixth floor had to take our shoes off my feet got cold about halfway up so I turned around and came down it looks to me better than from the outside anyway end of Tour after leaving the Castle it was time for some lunch and we decided on eating at gustos a chain of family restaurants in Japan where you order your food on a tablet and the food is served by a catl looking robot the bad thing is the cat doesn’t respond to

Complaints and the good thing is the food is good and the cat doesn’t accept tips see you then we were off to check out an Old Post town along the nakasendo the nakasendo was one of five trade routes of the Ido period connecting the population centers Ido

And Koto in Japan there were 69 Stations between Ido and Koto and post towns were places where worried Travelers could spend the night and get rested the post Town Momi Juku is a rather distinctive post Town due to its location roughly midway between the two population centers the town has been

Beautifully restored with a broad Cobblestone walkway lined with old Lattis windowed residential houses and buildings and carefully tended landscape and foilage the street also offers an array of museums tea houses and souvenir shops on both sides a scene that very much resembles how the post Town looked in

The Ido period hundreds of years ago give some snow a snowball ice take that Cafe over here there’s a cafe right here I noticed several of these water wheels which were used in the past to capture the water coming down from the mountains then to be channeled into a

Home or business some of these were even still operational yeah to Big to Small Let’s go let’s go home come on let’s go home you want to go home with me okay let’s go home later that afternoon we returned to Nagano City the capital of Nagano prefecture Nagano evolved as a tle town around zeni one of Japan’s most popular temples in 1998 the city hosted the

Winter Olympic Games and some former Olympic facilities can still be viewed around town we stayed at a Swanky love Hotel complete with pleasure gadgets and a slot machine and then the next morning we traveled North tunnel after tunnel until we found ourselves in the heart of the Japanese

Alps and Snow Country where we look to play in the snow don’t miss our next video where we put on the skis we take a bullet train to the coastal town of jetsu and return for some more snow Adventure thanks for watching Mushy Mushy thank you so much for watching

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