6:30am still half asleep, we dragged ourselves out of bed to observe the morning prayers of the monks at Shojoshin-in. That is all of us, except for one Viola, who was more than happy to abide by the “optional” clause and stay put in the warmth of her futon. Close to an hour of melodic chants, dongs, clangs, and we were back in the dining hall for another assortment of vegetarian dishes for breakfast. Today was the longest travel day on the entire trip. Train, after train, after train. 6.5 hours of trains in total to be exact, to get ourselves off of Mt. Koya and to our next destination of Matsumoto.
“You live in Canada?! And you go to Matsumoto! To see mountains?! Bahahaha” Apparently an older Japanese couple talking with Andrew were in stitches over our next destination choice.
This pretty much sums up our day. And yes, he slept like this for close to an hour!
What better way to perk up a bit than a cappuccino in Osaka during a “layover” before catching the next train onwards. Did I mention that we also had our first McDonalds of the trip? Oops, I’ve said too much!
Arriving in Matsumoto!
Our AirBnB for the next 2 nights in a quiet residential area of town.
By far the highlight of the day, and arguably one of the top highlights of our trip, was when we stumbled across The Source Diner for dinner and pulled up a seat at the kitchen bar. Chef and owner Makoto treated us to an amazing assortment of dishes as he prepared and cooked everything in front of us, sharing stories and laughs about his career (learning to cook on the job in NYC), life and culture in Japan versus NYC, and a bit of everything else in between.
remy and viola 