The Travelogue Thread
Japan Day 14 - Matsumoto Day 2.
We both love this city.
It's pretty in and of itself, has beautiful natural surroundings, is home to over 11 natural hot spring sites, has much less tourist traffic than Takayama, is the right size population wise, oh... and its famous dishes include
soba as well as its locally grown apples (and apple themed
omiyage as a result).
It has a proper castle, one of 12 left standing in Japan, one of 5 considered to be historically worth preserving. One of the reasons for which was it never got attacked, so much of it is still original (the adjacent palace was, however, razed to the ground).
Original gargoyles/guardians as part of the castle's outer architecture. I could not get a good shot of the more appropriate
shachi lion/fish chimaeras which still guard from the rooftops.
Original 16th century cannon of Dutch heritage. Was turned into an ornamental piece after unification, like much of the area's handguns and rifles (which sadly, I couldn't get a decent shot of due to reflections from the protective glass.
Secret/hidden floor with no natural lighting, designed to hide warriors who can lance would be invaders as they march upwards to the castle's higher levels.
View of one range of mountains from the top level in the castle (the other ranges were hidden from view by low lying clouds).
Small, hidden shrine nestled in the castle's roof, for which prayer and rice are offered on the 26th day of every month in exchange for divine protection.
Its sense of history goes far beyond that of even most other Japanese locales. It is situated in what is known as modern day Nagano prefecture, but much of the available literature/commerce still refers to this area by its pre-unification region, Shinano province, or Shinshu. Its city museum is home to artifacts dating back to the 10th century. It is essential to Japan's origin myth (Chinese people, feel free to roll your eyes at this one), and home to the almost extinct
tanabata doll making.
It's home to the country's first proper elementary school (Kaichi) and helped lay the foundation in the 18th century for Japan's rapid transformation from an agricultural society into a well educated one. It's a city whose motto is "anybody can become a teacher", in the broad sense, not the school house literal one. It (both this city and this school-turned-museum) is especially famous for its music education and cultivation.
I found these next two samples to be
quite interesting.
Fine examples of a waning Japanese car culture.
Bosozoku gone nuts...
... and inspiration for the west coast Fast and Furious style tuner scene (with a JDM only Accord wagon, no less).
You, too (rickhamilton) can be a hustler in this
kei car...
It also happens to be home to the best damn tasting chicken.....
in the world . I'm not exaggerating. If you can find better breasts, put your face between them and motorboat already.
This seemingly innocuous looking location on the 4th floor of Matsumoto JR station (itself a small mall) is home to the best tasting chicken. Full stop.
Bought these as motivation to improve my Japanese.
The experience was admittedly improved with a dinner in a nondescript
izakaya around the corner from the hotel, specializing primarily in
yakitori, with no English or pictures in the menu. We winged it. Sitting at the tightly packed counters watching the cooks do their thing was a joy, as was the adjacent Japanese business duo speaking to us (in full Japanese), inhibitions undoubtedly lowered by consuming their fare share of Japanese beer. Even with my broken Japanese, we struck up some fun dinner time dialogue asking each other about where we were from, what we did, etc. etc. I was challenged to a
shochu drinking match, and I didn't lose (I can't say I won, because he went easy on me out of consideration, unbeknownst to him I was more than ready for the full challenge). We exchanged business cards and emails, we thanked them for their kindnesses, they wished us well on our upcoming baby (a lie I told to keep my wife out of the drinking match). This is the sort of thing that I found to be commonplace in Japanese
izakayas fifteen years ago, and I miss it dearly (when was the last time you approached, or were approached, in a non threatening way by complete strangers in a restaurant and proceeded to engage them for the next few hours?).
Of course the experience was further helped by the amazing five star hotel (put in more stark contrast to the hostels we were staying in for 4 of the past 5 nights) which included the aforementioned public baths (sitting naked in a room of old men never felt so good), and also the included buffet-style high quality Japanese breakfast.
That doesn't matter. The experience
was great, but it also didn't take away from the Matsumoto itself. This town remains high on our list of places to revisit should we return, as we'd like to then visit some of the
onsens, check out more shrines and temples in the peripheral regions, and catch a local soccer match when in season.
Tomorrow is our last train ride (boo! though my wife will be understandably pleased) as we head back to Tokyo to close out our trip. Of the three new locations (Kanazawa, Takayama, Matsumoto) we got to sample, this latest one has been our unquestionable favourite. Matsumoto-shi
mata ne.