Matsumoto and Shimosuwa

   On Wednesday, Aug 9th, Traci had the day off, so we took the opportunity to go to Matsumoto.  After traveling by local train, we took the town "sneaker bus" to the castle. This is the oldest original castle in Japan, over 400 years old.  Originally surrounded by 3 moats, as part of it's defense, it never saw a battle.  The newer castle addition is known as the "moon viewing room" and is now used as a performance platform during festivals.
   We were very happy to have a volunteer tour guide (his name was actually Mr. Matsumoto!) who spoke lovely English.  He explained the architecture and history of the castle as we went to each floor.  There are 6 floors, but one is "hidden" and without windows, to trick the enemy.  Steep wooden stairs lead to each floor, and the top floor boasts a great 360-degree view.
   On Thursday we saw more of Shimosuwa.  There are 2 shrines - Akimiya "autumn" shrine, and Harumiya "spring shrine".  Akimiya boasts the largest rice straw ropes in Japan.  Now that I have seen what harvested rice fields look like, I understand where they get "rice straw".
   Shimosuwa is known for music boxes, and they have a museum.  It was so interesting to see music boxes (and listen to them) of all sizes from Switzerland, Germany, the US and Japan. There was a demonstration of some different styles of music boxes and a street organ, like an organ grinder would use.  We all got to try our hand at that one; it's a good thing I don't own a monkey, because I wouldn't make much money at it--it was difficult to make the music play smoothly!  They also demonstrated a large, 5 ft tall, disc-playing Japanese model, and the newest disc they have is "Let It Go" from the movie Frozen.  We really enjoyed it - so beautiful!

Rice straw rope

American tourists always getting in the photo.

Cedar trees and ceremonial log at Harumiya.

  

 

"Typhoon in the Morning"

This is Kelly, and that is our forecast on Accuweather today - typhoon in the morning.  I have never seen that forecast at home!  Today is Mon, Oct 6, and it started raining yesterday morning.  The rain is supposed to continue until about noon today.  Traci received a call that school would start at 11:00 today for the students, as the center of the typhoon should be past us by then, but teachers needed to come at the normal time.  It is wet outside, but not very windy.

My mom and I arrived late on Saturday night, after an 11-hour flight, 2 trains, and a taxi.  After we flew past the Aleutian Islands and headed south towards Japan, the headwinds increased to 150 mph, and our speed decreased to 400 mph. I think this was the influence of the coming typhoon.

At the airport, we got onto the N'Ex Direct train bound for Shinjuku station at the west end of Tokyo. Shinjuku is known as the world's busiest train station, with 2 million a day moving through it.  From there, we had 15 minutes to get to the next platform (it took us 10 min) and catch the Super Azusa bound for Kamisuwa, which is just a few miles from Traci's town.  Not every Azusa train stops in her town, so that's the one we had to take.  The hardest part of the trip, was staying awake the last 45 minutes on the train!! We didn't want to miss our stop! My mom had been awake for 24 hours or more, and I had only a couple naps on the plane. We managed to be awake at our stop, and Traci met us there. YAY!  Outside was 1 taxi, and the driver spoke English!  A short drive around part of the lake, and we were deposited at Traci's apartment building.

We spent Sunday visiting, resting, and staying out of the rain.  Traci and Grandma went for a walk to the lake before it started raining heavily.

The apple orchards are full of big red apples, and they sell them directly from the orchard next to us.  We plan to go buy a few and try them, they look tasty!  Oishii!

Traci is at work today, so we plan to go shopping, and grocery shopping, and see what we might cook up using the fish oven. After work, we'll try to secure some rental bikes for our stay here.