yokoso japan! - Part IV Matsumoto
lini taking the wheel to Matsumoto. driving through glorious snowy mountain landscape.
matsumoto is famous for a castle and soba. we arrived in the evening and went hunting for the famous soba shop. thanks to the great map, we walked round and round for a long time. finally, when we found the obscure little shop, it was closed that day! bah! so tired and hungry, we settled for a ramen shop that we chanced upon. turned out to be a famous shop. very reasonably priced.
part of the charm was the very fat neko-chan living in the shop, which gave the place a homely feeling.
next day we decided to make a day trip to takayama. turned out to be a joke as we had overlooked getting snow tyres/chain for the car.
the tyre tracks and footprints in the snow tell the story... car went up steep slope, skidded, passengers panicked, evacuated car, yellow rescue vehicle with kind english-speaking man happened to come by, passenger waved frantically, kind man guided rescue operation, which was to push car while driver steps on accelerator, until car gets to more gentle slope, turned around , stop at road side while passengers happily pose for pictures, putting on record this special moment.
next day, the search for famous soba continued. FOUND! a satisfied customer. the soba is hand made and served in a basket. there are only 2 items on the menu - cold or hot soba. comes with a teapot of warm gruel - the water in which the noodles was boiled. at the end of your meal, you can pour the gruel into the teacup and add shoyu (soya sauce) and drink it.
after the hearty meal, went to the kurasu-jo - the famous castle of matsumoto.
it is a samurai castle with walls that have openings through which the samurais can shoot enemies invading the castle.
that night, the first snow fell in matsumoto....
first footsteps in the snow....
overnight, the snow blanketed everything, including our car. i had to borrow a watering can from the florist to remove the snow from the windscreen.
kurasu-jo was transformed under the snow...
the streets all covered with snow.
more snow.
that was the snowy end to our stay in matsumoto. moving on next to the even snowier shirakawa-go.
Next: Part V Shirakawa-go
matsumoto is famous for a castle and soba. we arrived in the evening and went hunting for the famous soba shop. thanks to the great map, we walked round and round for a long time. finally, when we found the obscure little shop, it was closed that day! bah! so tired and hungry, we settled for a ramen shop that we chanced upon. turned out to be a famous shop. very reasonably priced.
part of the charm was the very fat neko-chan living in the shop, which gave the place a homely feeling.
next day we decided to make a day trip to takayama. turned out to be a joke as we had overlooked getting snow tyres/chain for the car.
the tyre tracks and footprints in the snow tell the story... car went up steep slope, skidded, passengers panicked, evacuated car, yellow rescue vehicle with kind english-speaking man happened to come by, passenger waved frantically, kind man guided rescue operation, which was to push car while driver steps on accelerator, until car gets to more gentle slope, turned around , stop at road side while passengers happily pose for pictures, putting on record this special moment.
next day, the search for famous soba continued. FOUND! a satisfied customer. the soba is hand made and served in a basket. there are only 2 items on the menu - cold or hot soba. comes with a teapot of warm gruel - the water in which the noodles was boiled. at the end of your meal, you can pour the gruel into the teacup and add shoyu (soya sauce) and drink it.
after the hearty meal, went to the kurasu-jo - the famous castle of matsumoto.
it is a samurai castle with walls that have openings through which the samurais can shoot enemies invading the castle.
that night, the first snow fell in matsumoto....
first footsteps in the snow....
overnight, the snow blanketed everything, including our car. i had to borrow a watering can from the florist to remove the snow from the windscreen.
kurasu-jo was transformed under the snow...
the streets all covered with snow.
more snow.
that was the snowy end to our stay in matsumoto. moving on next to the even snowier shirakawa-go.
Next: Part V Shirakawa-go
posted by nan at 9:41 PM
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