View towards Matsumoto Castle

Wally's Yamasa Journal

The snow that fell last night was gone and it was another bright and relatively warm morning as we got to Matsumoto Castle in time for the opening. It was a beautiful setting for photos with the snow covered mountains in the background. I actually wish there was some snow on the ground to go with the scene. It would have especially been nice to go with the parasol supports put on the branches to protect against the weight of the snow. It was an in-between kind-of-day, with it not being cold enough for winter but not green enough for spring or fall. There was an impressive batch of Koi in the moat, though.

The castle looked great for a 400 year-old structure. It also had a 400 year-old cherry tree nearby. The castle was constructed and fortified with the expectation of being attacked by someone using guns. The castle itself had quite a collection of ancient firearms to protect itself but maybe it was the 600 kilogram bag of rice hung from the ceiling of the top floor of the castle dedicated to a goddess that allowed it to survive for so long. One night a long time ago, a sentry had a vision saying that placing the rice there would in return, grant the castle the protection of this goddess. It seems to have worked all right, though the castle did need some benefactors during the Meiji era when the government wanted to sell the castle to develop the land. Mind you, as Declan suggested, I guess when you're doing sentry duty late at night in a freezing castle, you are apt to have the odd vision or two.

Matsumoto Castle	Firearm Display	Ceiling Shrine on top floor

I'd been taking a lot of pictures over the past couple of days since I was going to be writing about some of these places for the job when we got back so I should have expected that I could run low on power. Still have lots to learn about this camera. Fortunately, my ex-classmate came through with some extra batteries he brought for the trip.

A quick run through the adjoining museum (more firearms) then it was off to see the procession. Aside from some cannon fire and a gathering marching band, it wasn't evident there was a festival. Walking towards the center of town, I came just in time to see the first of the omikoshi being carried in by some brave men where nothing but yukata and mawashi in this weather. There were about six of these and a cart float, plus the earlier marching band coming in playing a song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" congregating for a Shinto blessing ceremony. It was quite a crowd but not a great deal of energy. Still, it would have been nice to see more but we had a schedule to keep.

Omikoshi procession	Blessing Ceremony	Crowd at Ame Ichi Matsuri

Daruma tree ready for burning

A good long walk back to the hotel (because we couldn't find a taxi), we encountered a neighbourhood putting together what could be called a 'daruma tree' by the river. It was tall with pine branches stacked like a Christmas tree except this one was decorated with darumas. Based on what was seen in the museum, it looks like this will be lit on fire this evening, perhaps as a celebration for the accomplishments symbolized by the previous year's daruma gathered there.

One of Hiroshige's 'Views of Edo' series

The Sakai Ukiyoe Museum was next. It's supposed to be quite famous but it was remote from the city center and pretty quiet (we were wondering if it was possibly closed). It houses the largest collection of woodblock prints in Japan, over 100,000, but I was disappointed to find a relatively few on display. The museum certainly did raise my interest in ukyoe art, though. There's a branch museum in Tokyo that I may want to check out if I have the time.

A long drive back to Nagano and a quick stop at McDonald's for lunch (I yielded), then it was back to the World War II tunnels. Not much actually to see but much to understand about the amount of work, mostly by forced labor, and lives lost for what was ultimately for a futile effort to avert defeat. The expanse of the tunnels definitely makes you wonder how long the Japanese would have been willing to fight the Second World War had the country not decided to surrender.

The drive to Tsugaike Kogen seemed to be not much of a problem considering we were taking a shortcut Declan's never taken before. The whole area was full of ski runs with the Tsugaike Kogen at the far end of the valley. A nice but cramped resort covers the base. Naturally, it was full of chalets, restaurants, and ski shops. We did need the chains climbing the road to the village itself. Declan picked them up on Friday just before we left for 30,000 yen (ouch!).

Tunnel Map	Memorial to tunnel workers	Tunnel Entrance

Touring the Tunnels	Unfinished Tunnel shaft

Managed to get in a couple hours of night skiing after dinner at the youth hostel we checked into. Somehow, the room the four of use were sharing felt more different than usual, not just because it was Japanese style layout-wise open with little furniture on a tatami-floor.

On top of the skis and poles, Declan also lent me a pair of goggles for the evening which came in handy. Even though Monday was a holiday, it looked like a lot of skiers were leaving the area as we were coming in. My skiing wasn't too bad considering it had been a while since I've done any. Only a couple of the runs were open but it was a good warm-up for all the skiing to come the next day.

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