Matsumoto castle.... and more

Another day and another day trip. This time into the mountains near the Olympic city of Nagano and to the famous Matsumoto castle. The big scandal for the day is that I brought the SLR camera with me, but when I pulled it out at the castle, I discovered that the battery was still beside the charger back home. So today's photos are brought to you by our little pocket camera.

Matsumoto was about a 2 and a half to three hour drive from Nagoya. The drive was all by freeway and relatively scenic going through the mountains. Stephen Day also tagged along with us and was good company for the day.

Matsumoto-Castle

Matsumoto castle is also called the ' Crow' Castle because of its black appearance and after Himeji, is the second most famous castle in Japan.

My first impression of the castle was...".it is pretty small". I did like looking at it but it was not awesome and imposing like I expected from a castle, rather it was interesting and pretty. In this shot you can see the main tower and note the 'moon viewing room' with the red railings to the left.

Here is a close up of the castle donjon. You can see the large number of slits in the walls for guns and archers.

We did go inside. As with other castles the stairs between floor are very steep. There were a number of red and white pavilions in the grounds. We were there relatively early but each seemed to be the location for a wedding ceremony.

A pretty stunning view of the castle.

Notice the motorboat in the moat.

The castle was worth a visit, but after being to Himeji, Inuyama and reconstructions in Nagoya, Osaka and Gifu as will as Nijo-jo in Kyoto this was good but we were there no more than an hour.

The- Japan Ukiyo-e Museum

I sold this to my traveling companions as probably not very good but who knows, could either be terrible or surprising. In the end it was...surprising.

The (Japan Ukiyo-e Museum (JUM) is the largest private collection of ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), paintings screens and old books in the world. The museum is a private family run enterprise by the Sakai family whose records date back to 1632. (ref). Very little was actually on display and I am still not sure whether what we saw were originals or copies. At around 1,200 Yen entry is was quite expensive but it was strangely worth it. The shop was very good and contained woodblock reproductions of classic pieces which were stunning. More vibrant and interesting than the standard prints of the same images.

Yes, some of the best stuff was on the walls on the thin passageway leading to the toilets.

Actually the art was very good, the drawing and colour was some of the best I have seen. I really like Ukiyo-e

The strangest thing of all was the surreal experience of the slide show presentation. As the only visitors at the time we were led into the slide show room where we listed to the bi-lingual presentation on how Ukiyo-e was made and about some of the famous pieces. It was a total b-grade presentation and was very funny.

The voiceover must have just been a recording of someone doing it live one day, as it was a complete rambling and totally incomprehensible. The high pitched mans voice would talk in Japanese, then in english and after that would yell 'Hai' and the girl silently standing in the back of the room with us diligently clickedthe button to move on to the next slide. For no reason at all the slide show also included a section on how european explorers killed millions of people all over the world. What that had to do with anything I do not know, but if you come to Matsumoto GO TO THE SLIDESHOW.

Daio Wasabi Farm

Established in 1915, and covering 15 hectares, the Daio Wasabi farm was a bit of an odd tourist attraction. It seemed something different rather than the usual tourist fare, so we drove out and had a look.

The farm is in the middle of nowhere, but the area is surrounded by spectacular mountain scenery. When we finally got there,the car park was crowded and there were a number of buses. Our expectations were very low so that was a sup rise.

It was free to get in, and there was the usual shop selling everything wasabi as well as a couple of restaurants. The big attraction though was looking down into the riverbeds where the wasabi was being grown.

As a tourist attraction it is something I would drop in to if I was in the area, but would not make a special trip out to see it.

Wasabi for sale. You could also buy wasabi ice cream but....no.

"The finest wasabi is grown in pure, constantly flowing water, without pesticides or fertilizers" - wiki . As you walked through the farm you could always see clear water streaming through the plantations.

What I did not know was that "Wasabi loses much of its flavor if exposed to air for even a short time, so genuine powdered wasabi, while it does exist, typically contains horseradish and other ingredients to approximate the nasal spiciness of fresh wasabi. Because of this, most powders use no real wasabi and instead turn to just horseradish, mustard seed, and green food coloring (sometimes Spirulina). Whether real or imitation, the powder is mixed with an equal amount of water to make a paste. Few people, even in Japan, realize that most of the wasabi that they consume is in fact an imitation." - Wiki

Crossing the fields

There were a number of statues in the farm. This one especially had a wasabi theme.

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Matsumoto castle.... and more