Plenty to do in Matsumoto: Karen's report

Matsumoto City Museum of Art

What can visitors do in my home city?

• You can visit Matsumoto City Art Gallery because it has a lot of pieces of work by Kusama Yayoi and other artists. You can see her art outside, a spotty Coca Cola machine, and a spotty bus too.
• I recommend Joyama Park because it has a lot of beautiful cherry blossom trees, and you can see wonderful views of Matsumoto and the tall mountains.
• I recommend eating soba in a restaurant called kawa-fune, near the castle. Soba is locally made grey noodles. You can eat them hot or cold - I prefer them cold.
• You must visit Matsumoto Castle, because it is a National Treasure. It has a long history, and there are many events there eg an Ice Festival in January, a Kendo competition in November, a Craft Beer Festival in August...
• Nawate Street is next to the Metoba River, and is good for shopping, eating Tayaki (from the Furusato shop), and beautiful views. You can have a coffee & pastry in Sweets, a bakery.
• Nakamachi is good for souvenir shopping in unique stores, there's a morning market on Saturdays, and it has a lot of restaurants.
• The film 'Orange' was filmed at the historic Agata-no-Mori building, where there is also a lovely park.

Karen

My hometown - Matsumoto

I live in Matsumoto, which is a city next to the mountains in the middle of Japan. It has a population of 228,814 people and it's a normal sized city in Japan.

It's a beautiful city, and it's great for walking around. There are lots of narrow streets, and it's full of shrines and markets. There's an area called Nawate where is a lot of outdoor markets and yatai-restaurants -people go there at the weekend to buy something for everyday use and eat something.
The weather here is very different from Tokyo. The winter is very cold, and it sometimes snows for days. The summer is wonderful - it's sunny but not usually too hot, and it's great for going to the mountains.

Matsumoto is famous for a castle, which is a national treasure. The most tourists visit there. It's a beautiful black colored castle. There's a festival in Auguest called Matsumoto Bon-bon, with a dancing people in the streets, and everybody competes their dances each other.

But I think the best things about Matsumoto are the people and the atmosphere. It has a clear air and water. It's a working city and it has a real sense of history, and that's the main reason why I like living here so much.

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