Winding Roads & Never Ending TalesFamily trips, wrong turns and the places we still talk about.
Matsumoto, Kamikochi and Mount Fuji: Our Favourite Japan Detour
Matsumoto was where I started saying I could live in Japan. Not because we had finished a perfect checklist. It was the easy walks, the castle, the small shops and the people who let us take our time. Then we went to Kamikochi, sat with the Japanese Alps in front of us, and leaving became an even worse idea. Bas, thoda aur baithte hain.
This covers Days 10-12, including the last-minute detour for Mount Fuji on the way back to Tokyo.
In this article
- Days 10–11: Matsumoto and the place we wanted to stay
- Day 10: A festival we had not planned
- Matsumoto City Museum of Art: another side of the town
- Day 11: Taisho Pond to Kappa Bridge
- Even the washroom made it into our memories
- Nawate-dori: Frog Street and a shop we still remember
- Day 12: A farewell walk, a Fuji detour and Shinjuku after dark
- Shinjuku: reaching the station is only half the job
- Back in Tokyo: knife shopping in Asakusa
Travelled in May 2026. Part 3 of our Japan family travelogue. Prices, menus and ticket rules can change.
Days 10–11: Matsumoto and the place we wanted to stay
Day 10: A festival we had not planned
We came from Kyoto and checked into the Richmond Hotel on Sunday, 17 May. There was a festival going on, with performances, costumes and floats in the streets. We had come for the town and mountains, and landed in the middle of all this as well.
We spent much of the afternoon watching the performers and walking from one street to another. Then we reached Matsumoto Castle. The dark building reflected in the moat was so beautiful that we kept stopping for photographs from different sides.
There were still places on our list, but we were quite happy spending time here. No great urge to rush off to the next one.
There was a peacefulness to Matsumoto that I cannot explain just by listing its attractions. We had enjoyed the big cities, but here I was happy with a walk and nowhere urgent to be. A small shop could hold our attention as much as a famous building. That is the part of travel I would like more of: enough time to actually like a place before having to pack again.
Matsumoto City Museum of Art: another side of the town
We also visited Matsumoto City Museum of Art. Keep that full name when saving the location; it is different from Matsumoto City Museum. There is more to this town than the castle and the trip into the mountains.
The art museum is closely associated with Yayoi Kusama, who was born in Matsumoto. Her large, colourful flower sculpture stands at the entrance, and her work is a major part of the collection. There are also galleries connected with local calligrapher Shinzan Kamijo and painter Kazuo Tamura. If art interests you, give this a proper place in the day rather than assuming it is a five-minute stop between trains. Check the official museum information for the current exhibitions, opening days and photography rules.
Day 11: Taisho Pond to Kappa Bridge
Next morning we took an early bus to Kamikochi and got down at Taisho Pond. Our plan was to walk from there towards Kappa Bridge. The first thing that struck us was how clear and still the water looked, with the mountains behind it.
Kamikochi really did feel like a place out of a dream. Snow still on the higher peaks, green along the water and reflections that made us stop again almost as soon as we had started walking. Photos help here, because I could keep saying beautiful and still not quite explain it. This was the Japanese Alps part of our trip, with Matsumoto as our base, not an overnight stay in the valley.
Taisho Pond also has a surprising backstory. It formed when an eruption of Mount Yakedake blocked the Azusa River in 1915. Looking at that calm water now, a volcanic eruption is hardly the first thing that comes to mind. The official Taisho Pond page explains how the landscape came to be.
We followed the Azusa River, sometimes on boardwalks, sometimes through the trees. In the shade it was cold, then a sunny patch would warm us up again. We kept stopping to look into the water. You could see so clearly through it.
At Kappa Bridge we sat by the water with the mountains in front of us. After the cities and theme-park plans, it felt very good to have nothing more urgent to do for a while. Could happily have stayed longer.
That sitting-down part deserves more space in the story. We were not doing anything impressive. Just sitting near the water, looking at the mountains. No next ride, no shopping list for those few minutes. Dil khush ho gaya. Of all the busy days we had planned, this is one of the moments I would happily repeat exactly as it was.
Even the washroom made it into our memories
During our walk by the water, we came across a public washroom in the park. Even there, away from the city buildings, it was spotless. I know, mountains all around and I am talking about a washroom! But when you travel as a family, these things matter. That small, ordinary stop left an impression too. This was what we found on our visit, not a promise about every facility everywhere.
For your own walk, use the official Kamikochi walking routes and check current trail and transport information. Give yourself time for pauses, suitable layers and the return connection. A lovely view can make you forget the clock; the last bus will not forget its departure time.
Our return involved a bus to Shin-Shimashima and the Kamikochi Line train to Matsumoto. Ticket correction for fellow travellers: do not rely on Suica for that train or the Kamikochi mountain bus. Alpico's current FAQ lists those services as outside IC-card coverage. Its June 2026 announcement schedules Kamikochi Line Suica introduction for around spring 2027; confirm the actual position before travelling.
Nawate-dori: Frog Street and a shop we still remember
Back in Matsumoto we tried the 7-Eleven smoothie machine, which soon became a family favourite. Later we walked along Nawate-dori, better known to many visitors as Frog Street.
The frog theme is not just a nickname added for visitors. Nawate runs beside the Metoba River, and the local tourism guide connects its frog symbols with the river and hopes for clean water where frogs can thrive. It is a pedestrian shopping street with small independent shops, bakeries, taiyaki stalls and everyday stores. The official Nawate Street guide is useful for locating it near the castle-town area.
For us, the attraction was that we could simply stroll. Look at the frogs, look into a shop, stop when something caught our attention. Koi jaldi nahi. We went into a shop selling traditional dolls, and that little stop became much more memorable than we expected.
The elderly owner spoke little English and our Japanese was hardly any better. Google Translate zindabad! We used it along with hand gestures and smiles to keep the conversation going. We got talking about the dolls and eventually chose one to bring home.
This was also why having a translator ready mattered so much. Download Japanese for offline use before the trip, and test what your app can actually translate without a connection. We used words, the phone, gestures and smiles together; waiting for a weak signal is not much fun when someone is kindly trying to explain something to you.
Such a warm person. We had only gone in to look, and ended up spending time talking to him. This little shop is still one of my clearest memories of Matsumoto.
What I liked most was the pace. After Tokyo, places like Matsumoto felt so much slower to us. We could wander into a shop, take our time looking and leave without buying something, with no pressure to turn every stop into a sale. People sitting out, little conversations, no hurry to move us along. That feeling stayed with me as much as the big sights.
Over dinner I told my wife I could live here. I meant it too. Of all the places we had visited on this trip, this was the one I was least ready to leave.
Day 12: A farewell walk, a Fuji detour and Shinjuku after dark
Around 6:30 the next morning I went back to the castle on my own. The festival crowds were gone and it was quiet around the moat. Took more photographs, of course. Leaving Matsumoto was not looking like a very good idea just then.
But the Tokyo train was booked, so back we went. During the journey we checked the Mount Fuji visibility forecast. It was looking promising. We had missed seeing it from Hakone, and here was another chance.
So the easy day back in Tokyo started changing. Could we fit in a detour to Gotemba? Apparently we were not quite finished adding things to this trip.
At Shinjuku we put the bag we were carrying into storage and took a highway bus to Gotemba Premium Outlets. Sort out the luggage and return bus before doing this kind of detour; locker sizes, charges and access times are not all the same.
Shinjuku: reaching the station is only half the job
We also managed to go round and round inside Shinjuku while trying to find the correct platform. Station toh aa gaye, ab platform kahan hai? By then we had used so many trains that we thought we had a reasonable idea of what we were doing. Shinjuku had other plans for our confidence.
This is a genuine warning for the big JR stations: allow time to find your train, not just time to reach the station building. Check the operator, line or train name, departure time and platform on the boards. Follow those signs rather than whichever entrance your map happens to bring you to. If the signs stop making sense, show your ticket to station staff before doing one more full round. Bags and tired family members make the same wrong turn feel much longer.
Keep the JR East Shinjuku station map handy, but use the day's departure boards for the actual train. A saved platform number is not a substitute for checking. The lesson for us was simple: leave a buffer, and ask before confidence turns into another lap.
And this time there it was, Mount Fuji, clear against the sky. Finally! Chalo, Fuji darshan ho gaye. We had come to an outlet mall, but spent a lot of time looking at the mountain from the complex and the connecting bridge. After Hakone, this felt worth the extra journey.
We ate at the Hill Side food hall with Fuji still in view. Very happy with that lunch stop. Shopping was not really the main attraction for us that day.
Back in Shinjuku, we saw the giant 3D cat near the East Exit, took photos at the LOVE sculpture and looked up at Godzilla above the cinema. Then we walked through Omoide Yokocho, with its narrow lanes and lit-up counters. We liked the atmosphere, though finding dinner for our diet there did not look straightforward.
Finally we collected the bag and went to the hotel. Our easy day had become another busy one, but we had seen Fuji! We were lucky with the weather. I would not count on the same view just because the detour worked for us.
Back in Tokyo: knife shopping in Asakusa
Our return-to-Tokyo stretch also included knife shopping in Asakusa. After Matsumoto and the mountains, we were back looking at things to bring home, this time something for the kitchen. Souvenir shopping has quite a range on a Japan trip: traditional dolls at one stop, kitchen knives at another.
I am keeping this as our Asakusa shopping memory rather than naming a shop I have not confirmed. If you are doing the same, ask the shop about the knife's intended use, care and protective packing, and check your airline and destination rules before travelling with it.
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