NAGANO TRIP 
Matsumoto Castle（松本城） is a Japanese-style castle built about 400 years ago. Matsumoto castle is called “crow castle ” because the color of Matsumoto castle is more black than usual Japanese castle. It is registered as a national treasure. You can take a beautiful pictures Matsumoto-jo Castle with cherry blossoms and the Northern Alps. And if you have any time, let’s go because there are many attractive tourist spots around Matsumoto castle.
OPENING HOURS? ENTRANCE FEE? PARKING? HOURS?
| ADDRESS | 4-1 Marunouchi, Matsumoto, Nagano |
| CATEGORY | Historic site |
| ENTRANCE FEE | Adult：610 yen Under 15：300 yen |
| OPEN HOUR | 8:30 ~ 17:00 (last entry time – 16:30) |
| CLOSED | Every day open |
| NECESSARY TIME | The time it takes to look around the inside of Matsumoto castle is 60 minutes. |
| BEST SEASON | ALL |
| PARKING | City parking (not free) |
| OFFICIAL SITE | https://visitmatsumoto.com/en/ |
Visitors need to get a ticket to enter an inside of the castle. The above picture is the entrance. Visitors can know about “how long need to wait to enter?” at the entrance. Unfortunately, Visitors can not take all foods and drinks inside.
Google Street View in Matsumoto Caste
FROM TOKYO TO MATSUMOTO CASTLE
From the nearest station
Approximately 17 minutes’ walk from Matsumoto Station (The second biggest station in Nagano)
Access from Haneda Airport
1, Approximately 40 minutes, Haneda Airport No. 1 terminal to Shinjuku Station West Exit (1,230~2,000 yen/ Haneda-Airport Limousine Bus Airport Shuttle Bus towards Hyatt Regency Tokyo)
2, Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, Shinjuku Station to Matsumoto Station (6,500 yen/ Chuo Line-Limited Express Limited Express Azusa towards Matsumoto)
Access from Narita Airport
1, Approximately 35 minutes, Narita Airport Terminal 2 Station to Nippori Station (2,470 yen/ Skyliner Toll Limited Express Skyliner)
2, Approximately 20 minutes, Nippori Station to Shinjuku Station (200 yen/ Yamanote Line Local towards For Ikebukuro / Shinjuku (Counter-Clockwise))
3, Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, Shinjuku Station to Matsumoto Station (6,500 yen/ Chuo Line-Limited Express Limited Express Azusa towards Matsumoto)
Matsumoto Castle MAP
Matsumoto Cstle Trip Advisor
How to enjoy Matsumoto Castle?
Taiko-mon Masugata Gate
Taiko-mon Masugata Gate (太鼓門桝形) consists of the large some gates. Taiko-mon Gate was built around the early 17th century, and then demolished in 1871. Taiko means drum, in the Edo period samurai signal the time and to start a war near the castle by drum at this place.
Matsumoto Castle Souvenir Shop
There is a souvenir shop in the garden of the castle. The outer wall of the souvenir shop covered with square tiles jointed raised plaster which style is Japanese traditional style.
Visitors can buy local snacks and drinks, straps, ornaments. It is no spacious but there are popular and famous goods.
A lot of military goods
A lot of old military goods are displayed inside of the castle. Especially many guns are on display.
The Top Floor of Matsumoto castle
From the top floor, you can look to the amazing landscape of Matsumoto city. Unfortunately, this photo is not taken, if it is all sky blue sky, you would like to look to the Japanese Alps.
Above our head at the top floor, there is a Guardian deity of the castle. Only you look to out of the castle, may overlook the guardian deity.
Free guided tours of Matsumoto Castle
There are tour guides by four languages that provide interesting facts and history about the castle and Matsumoto city.
Let’s walk around the castle environs
Matsumoto Nawate Street
There are some historical destinations and sightseeing places around the Matsumoto castle. Nawate street (繩手通り) is called “Frog Street”. There are a lot of frog goods shop and spots related to frogs. “Nawa” means rope, this street is one straight rope, so this street is Nawate street. Recently, there has been increasing some cool shops and variety of goods shop for young people.
Matsumoto Nakamachi Dori Street
Naka machi town (中町通り) has 400 year’s history. Nakamachi was a full Japanese sake shop, draper, wholesaler as a shopping street aside from the Zenkoji highway until samurai period. After the samurai period, unfortunately, Nakamachi is burned with fire sometimes. Therefore, residents constructed white and black’s Kura that has a structure that is hard to burn with fire. The townscape of white and black’s Kura is preserved now, visitor can look a characteristic townscape.
Matsumoto Castle is the famous view place of a night’s cherry blossom (sakura)
If you can choose a season when visiting, we recommend the spring season. Become night cherry blossoms (夜桜) are really beautiful at the Matsumoto castle.
Point to be aware of Matsumoto Castle
When going up the stairs, the skirt is not fit fusion. Because Matsumoto-jo castle’s stairs are a very steep staircase. Maybe look at an inside the skirt… Be careful!
The peak season is late April to early May Golden Week (Japanese special holiday) and 13th to 17th in August summer. In this season, the visitor may wait for two hours to go up the castle tower. But the visitor can get a numbered tickets. If the visitor can get these tickets, the visitor can enter the castle tower after time.
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