Birthday trip - Matsumoto (Day 1)

 

Birthday trip - Matsumoto

Day 1

Since my birthday fell on a Friday this year, I decided to take a vacation day and go on a 2-night trip to somewhere I've never been before. This time, I decided to go to Matsumoto. The plan is to go visit the Matsumoto Castle and surrounding shopping street, have a nice dinner at a bistro, visit the Hirade Ruins and Narai-juku, and if I have time, visit a museum or two.

I woke up dark and early to get ready for the trip. I finished packing the night before, so at least that part was done. I wasn't riding the bullet train for this trip, but I did ride an express train called Azusa. I had to go to Shinjuku to get on this train. I realized that I forgot to hit the ATM for cash when I got to the Shinjuku Stn, so I had to go out in search of an ATM. Man, I'm glad I don't work in Shinjuku. If you think crowd waiting at the crossing in Shibuya was insane, Shinjuku comes a close second during commute time. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream, going against the current.

It was a clear, crisp day and the view outside the window was great. The sun shining in felt so good but lethal, I felt sleepy in no time. LOL I did doze off for a bit but I did get to see a fabulous view of Mt. Fuji from the train. After Mt. Fuji could no longer be seen, there wasn't much of interest, so I dozed off again. Before I knew it, last stop, Matsumoto.

I found the hotel with little difficulty. It was pretty close to the train station. I dropped off my suitcase at the front desk, but not before I changed my shoes. Thinking it would be much colder than it actually was, I wore winter boots. Considering how I made the mistake of wearing boots and my sweltering feet regretting not bring lighter shoes a couple of years back, I did pack a pair of light sneakers. So glad I did!

I headed off to see the Matsumoto Castle, which was closer than the other place I was planning to visit. I had a dinner reservation so needed to get back in time to freshen up. After going around in circles a couple of times, I finally made it to the castle. They had volunteers standing outside the entrance eager and willing to give free tours in English. They approached me but I spoke to them in Japanese, which shocked them. LOL Of course, I spoke to them in English for a bit. Now, if you're visiting the Matsumoto Castle in the dead of winter, bring an extra pair of socks or indoor booties! Not slippers, tho. They'd be too dangerous on the steep stairs. They give you a bag to put your shoes in and you have to walk on the cold floor only in your socks. They don't offer any indoor footwear. My tooties were mighty cold by the time I finished touring the inside of the castle.

The castle looks big on the outside, but it's not all that roomy on the inside. It looked like they were doing restoration work here and there. It was like a museum but the floorplan was pretty much preserved. They had cases displaying the different types of muskets used during one of the feuds. I was surprised to learn that women were making the ammo balls. I'm sure there must've been a kitchen and bathroom somewhere, but I didn't see any remnants of one.

When I say the stairs in the castle are steep, I mean, STEEP! One set of stairs were not only steep, but the steps were high, too! The steps came almost up to my knees. There were attendants at the stairs making sure everybody went up and down the stairs safely. Going up was fine. Coming back down, I didn't go down the stairs the normal way. I went down backwards. It's easier on the knees and less scary.

The view from the top (6th floor) was great. I thought I'd see more snow up on the surrounding mountains but it didn't look like there was much snow. It was cold, tho. A portion of the floor at the top was warmed up by the sun so I stood on that patch to warm up my poor frozen tootsies.

After touring the castle, I headed off to visit the shopping street called Nakamachi-dori. It's a street lined by preserved, old buildings that include warehouse-type buildings (kura) with large white-painted walls. This is where the city's merchants used to live during the Edo Period. Now, some of the buildings house small shops and restaurants.

Over a few streets over, there's a pedestrian-only street called Nawate-dori, also nicknamed Frog Street since it's said that frogs could be heard from the river that runs along the street. This street is lined with shops in a "nagaya" (row houses) style and most shops carry something that's frog-themed. There are also statues of frogs scattered all across the street.

I really didn't go into the shops all that much except for a shop that sold dried fruits and veggies. They even had sampled. I tried the dried and sweetened ginger. It had a bite but I liked it, so picked up a bag, along with a bag of sweet potato chips.

For dinner, I made a reservation at a bistro. I wanted to try the Shinshu beef and this bistro served it and the reviews weren't bad. In the end, I regretted the choice. The steak and fries were way too salty for my taste. The portions were small, so I ordered the beef tongue stew, Shinshu beef sirloin, and French fries. The stew was delicious. The meat was so tender! I did enjoy the stew. I couldn't say the same for the steak and fries. The first thing I tasted was the salt. It was SO salty! Maybe food is saltier in this region since it's snow country, but it's too salty for those of us living around Tokyo. It felt like they were using the food as an excuse to serve salt and totally ruined the experience.

For drinks, I ordered a wine made out of concord grapes. The wine was sweet and went down easily. It's the type of wine that'll knock you on your ass if you're not careful because you don't notice the alcohol all that much. It was basically grape juice with a hint of alcohol. I tried their wine highball after the wine. I meant to order the red, but I accidentally ordered the white (you read in the QR code on your smartphone and order online). The white wine highball has grapefruit juice and tonic, neither of which I like. However, the bitterness of the drink helped offset the saltiness of the food.

Although I mentioned that it was my birthday, the bistro didn't offer a complimentary dessert because I didn't order the course meal. The course meal didn't offer what I wanted to eat. But, looking at my order, the food cost more than what they charged for a course, so they should've used their brains and offered me dessert anyways. Like I said, I ended up regretting my choice because the food was so salty I couldn't enjoy it as much as I should have been able to, and I didn't get a complimentary dessert. This is the only restaurant I've been to that didn't offer a complimentary birthday dessert.

After dinner, I did some exploring the area around the station. One thing I found out was that shops close early, between 7-7:30pm. I'm used to shops closing at 8-9pm. It was around 8pm when I was roaming the area and I heard a bunch of birds chirping away. At night, after dark. But there were no trees around. I was wondering where the noise was coming from, so I looked up, and there were hordes of birds on the power lines. I have never seen so many birds in one place. Remember Hitchcock's movie, Birds? Yeah, it was creepy seeing so many birds in one place. Of course, I made sure to move away from the line of fire. Since it was dark, I couldn't make out what the birds were, but found out later that they were starlings. Apparently, the city chopped down the trees the birds were sleeping in at night because of the damage from the droppings. Way to go, Sherlock. The birds ended up on the powerlines, more spread out instead of being confined to the trees. That makes for a wider range for the line of fire.

The hotel I stayed at was nice. The room was bigger than the business hotels in Tokyo. I didn't have to leave the room to change my mind. LOL The had a (Japanese) double bed, small couch, table, TV stand, and plenty of room to walk around for one person. The bathtub was tiny, even for my standards, tho. Not only did this hotel have a nice communal bath, they offered free coffee service in the morning, a free drink in the evening, and "ochazuke (お茶漬け) from 9:30pm. Ochazuke is basically rice, topped with salmon flakes, dried seaweed, Japanese pickles, with green tea or broth made with bonito stock poured over it. The bath wasn't natural hot springs, but the water temperature was just right and relaxing. Now that I have a waterproof Kindle, I could take that with me to read while I soak in the bath. They even had a massage chair that I could use for free (lots of places have slots to put coins in to operate the chairs). This chair even massaged my butt. The rollers went all the way from my neck to my butt. That was interesting. The massage was great after a long day of walking.

. . . continued to Day 2