Winter-trip Part I: by train to Nagano

Now that we are completely settled in in our new place, we thought we deserved a nice break and plan a little winter vacation. What better place to go to in winter than a place with lots of snow and beautiful scenery (despite the cold!), so we decided to go to Nagano. The city that hosted the Winter Olympics in 1998, and off course is famous for its lovely winter weather.

The easiest, and fastest way to get to Nagano is by Shinkansen, but that is also the absolute most expensive way to travel. So when we were looking at cheaper options (probably the express way bus), we found about a great seasonal railway ticket: the Seishun 18. Sold only three times a year during school holidays it gives 5 days of free travel on local and rapid JR trains (so excluding the faster express trains).
Not the fastest way to travel, but definitely the cheapest way.
If you plan carefully and don't mind catching the first train in the morning and travelling till late in the evening, you can apparently even travel all the way from Tokyo to Hiroshima in one day! Personally we thought that travelling that long by train, and doing so many transfers is a bit too much, so we kept the distance a bit shorter and the amount of transfers limited.

Seishun 18 ticket

Travelling by local or rapid trains is a fantastic way to look around, and see much of the country. The biggest advantage of travelling by the Seishun 18 ticket is that you can get out at any station you want on the way to your destination. Therefore we planned our transfers carefully, so we could visit some interesting cities on our way to Nagano.

After leaving early in the morning, our first (short) stop was a Kofu, a city west of Tokyo, and famous for it's beautiful views on Mount Fuji. Even continuing our trip, the windows of the train offered a splendid picture on the white peak of Japan's famous mountain.
Our second (longer) stop was in Matsumoto, a city famous for it's original castle. We have always wanted to go and see the castle, but it's a bit far for a day trip from Tokyo, so this train tour was the perfect opportunity to explore the city of Matsumoto. (more in next update!)

After Matsumoto, we only had an hour by train left. Increasingly we saw more and more snow covering the landscape as we reached the Olympic city. ...to be continued...