japan :: matsumoto and friends

We arrived in Matsumoto, greeted by the sing-song train station announcement that my family remembers from their trip in 1996. I made several attempts to record it, but failed. Click on this youtube video and listen for it at the 0:25 mark.


We stayed at the Hotel Kagetsu in a luxurious Japanese-style tatami room for the first two nights.








We spent our first evening walking around Matsumoto Castle. It is still one of my favorite places.














The following day, we met my former Japanese tutor and her two oldest children. They took us to a flea market at the local community center. I don't remember flea markets from when I lived there - an effect of the recession? or have they always been there?











After lunch (Nepalese curry - yum!), we explored the city center.











But the best way to make friends with small people, it turned out, was to let them play with my iPhone. We 'Lego-ized' some of their pictures.








Over the weekend, Matsumoto was overrun with soba enthusiasts for the 7th Annual Soba Matsuri - how many towns outside Japan can boast a three-day festival devoted to making and eating buckwheat noodles?























The lure of prawn tempura soba kept people in line, in the rain, all day.





We opted for soba with mountain vegetables and mushrooms instead.








Last but not least, we visited my old village, Horigane.



My old apa-to!


And had a lovely dinner with one of my old students...








I had a great time revisiting my old stomping grounds. Matsumoto/Azumino has changed a fair amount since I lived there in 1994-1996, and yet so much of it is reassuringly familiar and untouched. Natsukashikatta, naa...