Tuesday 9 November 2010

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.


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


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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?


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


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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.


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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?





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


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We opted for soba with mountain vegetables and mushrooms instead.


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


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My old apa-to!


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


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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...

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