Friday, October 9, 2009

Matsumoto

Our first stop on the JR Rail line out of Tokyo was Matsumoto, a town outside of Nagano that is famous for its 400 year old castle and the quality of its Soba noodles, both of which we sampled. Our expectations were low but we were pleasantly surprised by charming old architecture and a great shopping street offering non-touristy local crafts and foods. Best of all, we were met by a huuuuuge full moon over the town which gave me the chance to convince Ingrid that it was made of cheese and if she put her hand out and picked a bit of it she could put it on her imaginary cracker. She bought it in full.





We were lucky to be in town for the Shintosai festival so the castle grounds were open to the public and there were all sorts of activities ongoing. We sat on the grass in front of the castle and enjoyed the moon on one side of us and a quartet of traditional Japanese musicians in full dress on the other. We then went to a nearby noodle shop and joined the local Japanese men in slurping down our bowls of soba.



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