Matsumoto castle

We visited the Matsumoto Castle on the afternoon of 28 Dec 06, after a failed trip to Takayama (read above). It's one of Japan's 3 castles to be designated a National Treasure and it's over 400 years old. It was a sunny day, and in winter in Japan, the sun always comes from the south no matter what time of the day it is. The castle was smaller in real life than in photos, but it was surrounded by a beautiful moat with ducks, swans and koi fishes. A flock of pigeons appear to guard over it. Then on the night of 28th, it snowed. By morning, the utterly charming town of 200,000 was magically transformed. We walked back to the castle and I tried to go back to the same spot where I took the previous day's shot for another view of the same scene. Here they are, same scene, less than one day apart... Plus one final shot in a portrait format.

Chup