Japan in December

mfedley:
yeah, matsumoto has a looooooooot of very small museums, beside the big famous one.

most of them have some very special or strange interest, that you dont see somewhere else. like the radio museum, ukiyo-e museum, clock museum, weight scale museum and folk art museum (which is also some of my favorites). check them out. matsuomoto has much more than the obvious tourist eye will see usually

My brother is eager to visit Matsumoto. But I'm not sure he is a museum kind of person. He just wants to stroll around and feel the city vibes, and visit the castle of course.

Matsumoto isnt really a city, it is more a big town.

It is actually very quiet especially at night, though on one occasion there was a street fair thing going on and a lot of people were out and about at night. Most of the time though there isnt a lot of activity going on, we could walk around after dark and not see many people at all except around the station. There is a shopping street along the canal near the castle that is pretty nice, but if your brother wants to get a city vibe, probably best to go on a weekend when there might be more going on.

How do you save money when you travel?