- nagano chapter: matsumoto castle -

currently listening to – Real Face (KAT-TUN)
mood – sleepy

^ Matsumoto Castle ^

^ the river surrounding the castle. birds flying over(?) it.. ^

^ man, i think im a potential photographer..^

^ swan princesses spotted. ^

^ the view that lies outside the moon-viewing veranda.. ^

*****

23 december. mom’s birthday. and also the current Japanese tennou’s birthday. :D

for the time being we decided to go for lunch, then visit the Matsumoto Castle. chose to eat at Coco’s coz some of us found the name very amusing. apparently the word means “poop” in Portuguese.

wasn’t my 1st time eating at Coco’s actually. in fact my family was one of the regular customers of this restaurant during our days in Tsukuba. which was like.. more than a decade ago. other than Coco’s we often patronized Skylark as well, which now some of its outlets changed their names to Gusto (and of course, places like McD and Mister Donuts). we didn’t really fancy restaurants like Denny’s and Royal Host, though. don’t ask me why.

so yeah, we split into 2 tables and started ordering food. I was sitting with the Bruneian, Indonesian and New Zealander, and we started gossiping and bitching about everything out of nowhere. it wasn’t until later, when we were halfway munching our strawberries and chocolates, that the table next to us was already empty. it would’ve been too peculiar if all of them went to the washroom at once, with all their belongings and valuables. then only we realized that we were ditched. the worst case scenario would be: we were abandoned by the other 4 and were expected to pay for all their meals.

fortunately, the joke wasn’t as bad as we thought. we managed to leave the restaurant by paying only our own bills. the other group seemed to be overly excited about the Matsumoto Castle outing, so they have gone ahead of us. leaving us in the restaurant eating in peace. thank you.

went to the castle by foot. wasn’t a long walk. thanks to the many signboards all around the city we were able to make our way there successfully. Matsumoto Castle wasn’t such a big building. well, not as huge as Osaka Castle, I think.. one thing special about this castle is that the dungeon’s one of the four castle dungeons which are set as national treasures. there’s a veranda for moon-viewing, where you can enjoy the beautiful lake (with swans swimming in it) while resting. the 8 of us secretly (?) took a group photo there. anyway, I personally thought that the staircases were pretty scary, though. the entire building is made of wood, including the staircases. and the width of the surface of the steps and the height of the steps varies…. we kinda crawled when going up and slide down when attempting to return to the 1st floor (there’re 5 or 6 floors, by the way)…..

later, we found ourselves wandering around the souvenir shop just beside the castle. there were automatic vending machines outside the shop, with one of them selling Haagen-Dazs ice-creams.. I remember, when my family once went to Huis Ten Bosch (some theme park) with our Japanese friends, during WINTER, we ate ice-creams. yes. and I also remember, that I did a very brilliant move – eating the ice-cream upside-down like how one does when he’s trying to get the last drop of coke from the can – and the almost-not-attacked vanilla part struck the floor. like, SPLUTTER. so that fine afternoon during our visit to Matsumoto Castle, my friend and I got very excited on the ice-cream idea.

until our bubble was burst when we saw the sign on the vending machine saying, “not functioning during winter”. thank you so much.

next stop: ICE-SKATING. found this “Asama Onsen International Skating Center” on the net, which opens throughout the year except for 31 dec and new year’s day. weren’t able to ski at anywhere around Matsumoto City or even take a bus to the Alps (the roads into the mountains were blockaded and we have to take a taxi up there if we were desperate), at least satisfy ourselves by skating for 2 hours or so.. so from Matsumoto Castle, we set foot for Asama Onsen. the inn keeper told us that there’re buses to the onsen directly, and the bus stops were supposed to be everywhere around the city. we started off walking with springs in our steps (with 2 directionless idiots – one of the 2 was me – leading the way), and eventually everyone was half-dragging themselves in the dark, in search of a bus stop. tried asking for directions in a pharmacy when the worker (an old lady) refused to cooperate with us by asking us to “Please wait a second”, a few times, when we had already been waiting for some few hundred seconds.

finally, we came to a bus stop. the bus timetable showed that we could go to the onsen through this route. bravo. and to confirm that we were taking the right bus, we asked the lady who was also waiting for the bus (in Japanese, of course), “Excuse me, can we go to the Asama Onsen International Skating Center by this bus?” but, after realizing that some gaijin was actually talking to her, she pulled out her earphones and started staring back at me, and all she answered at last was, “tabun.” which meant “probably”.

here we go, hopping onto the bus. we came to this dark, quiet place with no people around. it said Asama Onsen blah blah… but the skating ring was nowhere to be seen. found a town map and we wandered aimlessly along a straight road. then. the wide straight road with lights turned into a dark, small winding road when we reached a junction. had no choice but to stop by the Indian restaurant at the junction to seek for help. and guess what, the man in the restaurant said, “Oh, you’re going to the skating center? it’s across the mountains. if you’re to walk there you’ll take more than an hour.” sir, you’re the nicest person we’ve met along the way, it’s just that you came too late. we’re already here and you tell us it’s NOT here?.......

moral of the story: never entirely believe what Japanese people say (especially pedestrians and passersby) when asking for directions.

I actually felt very stupid, partly because I was one of those who led the way (so I had the responsibility to confirm beforehand the location of the Asama Onsen International Skating Center, which currently IS clear to us that it’s NOT at Asama Onsen). shocked and confused, we decided NOT to risk our lives going to the skating center by foot that night, and settled down in the Indian restaurant. but we promised ourselves that we would restart our journey to go across the mountains after getting a good night’s sleep.

*****

1) tennou – the Japanese emperor.
2) onsen – hot springs.
3) Asama Onsen – one of the most famous onsen in Matsumoto City.