Comment last post

I emailed the last post and my comments not coming through so just a quick one on the last pix.
That is my friends from way way back.  Came to Tokyo from Omiya and visited them.  We kinda grew up together until I had to move away for high school.  His wife prepared a gourmet dinner that night...Yum...Kobe Beef, Shumai (also from Kobe), ninomono, egg soup, and all the trimmings
Thanks guys I had a great time.

Went to high school baseball tournament, almost as big as March madness

Comments on last two posts

The last three posts were emailed and the comments didn't come through so need to explain some of it.  When I got to Omiya I found my first Family Kitchen, a very popular fast food restaurant here. (I saw this on YouTube ...Japanese lessons without speaking Japanese) the Japanese can be a funny breed...they have a tendency to contract American words so Family Kitchen becomes Faa then combined with Kin. So in the video the Haole guy is asking a young Japanese girl if she likes FaaKin...Yes I love FaaKin ...goes on like that...funny video.  So had to try this place and ask the obvious question.
That's my cousin and his daughter.  We met and had dinner at an Okonomiyaki Restaurant (Hiroshima style)
The next day I found a velodrome hoping to see some races but no to be.  They were racing at a different velodrome but a couple of guys were training and they did have off track betting with monitors televising the races.  There's also horse races, speedboat races and motorcycle races you can bet on, so my cousins taking me to watch both the bicycle races and speedboat races tomorrow. Should be fun.

Omiya

Keirin Velodrome. They weren't racing here but had off track betting. These guys were training

Omiya

Omiya was more fruitful than I had imagined

Welcome to Omiya

Nice of them to greet me at the station. Actually a fund raiser for Fukushima. So this welcome committee cost me

From my Idumbphone

Last day with the group

Spring water everywhere we went

Locals were coming here filling their bottles

Matsumoto Castle...one of only two that have been restored to its original splendor...the other one is Himejijoo Castle.  This is what I wanted to see, not the one in Nagoya

Our last day together...Nick, his dad Will, and Emily...Aloha

We went to the train station after this.  Will and Nick had to run to make the train leaving in 5 minutes,  Emily had a half a hour wait, I'm spending another night here and Ben went to visit his friend who lives just outside of Matsumoto.  I spent about ten minutes at the visitor center then walked back to the hotel.  On the way I was passing a McDonald and who do I see...Ben, our more Japanese than Japanese tour guide scarfing on a Big Mac and Fries.  Don't feel so bad wanting a cheeseburger.  Should have taken a picture though.

City Lights

Narai station. Heading to Matsumoto, our last stop on the Nakasendo.

At the Matsumoto station

Shaking with anticipation couldn't hold the camera steady.

Hotel Kagetsu 

Matsumoto is a pretty good sized city surrounded by mountains and very central in the Japan Alps for the mountaineers to based themselves.  Not quite Kathmandu but there are some mountaineer shops.

After a week in the country it's nice to be in a city with a variety of restaurants (read cheeseburgers)

But a city is a city. We have a half day tour tomorrow then our tour ends.  

Around Narai

For Debora...these little seats are used in the bathing area for a child to sit and wash herself

For Bump and Debora

Constructing a new tea house

Narai no Ohashi...this was the largest bridge over Kiso River

They had Philips screw drivers back then

Narai

Edict posted at both ends of town proclaiming the do's and the don't s

And the punishments if you do, usually beheading with the head displayed next to this.

Great way to get rid of the unwanted...yes I still have mine

Lunch at this soba shop.  Not only do they make their own soba but they're known for their "Gohei Mochi"

Gohei Mochi on top.  Mochi, rice cake, topped with sesame sauce...black sesame, sesame with shiso, and sansai, mountain spices.

Topping out

Whew. The last one. We get to the top and of course there's a shrine surrounded by statues of different religions and goods

This site is more an altar to Mt Ontake and the surrounding mountains than a temple, a place where ordinary travelers to the past emperors have prayed to the gods of Mt Ontake.

Basho, a haiku poet famed for his travels around Japan, was so inspired with this spot wrote one of his famous haiku which is inscribed on this stone

I thought this was the top but see the steps behind the group and off to the left going up, up, up

Yup another false summit.

Got over the top and there it was. Narai...our last post town and the largest preserved one.

That will be the end of Kiso Valley.  

Back on the Nakasendo Trail

Self portrait...making sure I'm still walking

Plum tree...plums for umeboshi...sour from the get go

Yoshihige's woodblock print of Torii Toge, the highest pass on the Nakasendo

A beautiful day.  Hiking under a canopy of exploding colors of every shades of green imaginable with sunlight filtering through.

Going through a Red Pine Forrest.  Can't see the colors but a beauty.  Matsutake mushrooms grow under these pine trees.  Locals put up an official looking signs to close the trails during mushroom season to keep mushroom hunters from entering.

Last day of hiking

This is it. The last day of hiking and I'm sore and stiff despite the long soak in the onsen and a half hour in the massage chair.  There's hope though because it's been poring since midnight...maybe we can cab it to the next destination.  Woke up at 4:30 to the sound of torrential rain but by 5:30 my hopes were slowly slipping away.  By 6:00 the sun was out...better go soak in the onsen some more.

Are you sure you're not too sore...you're welcome to stay another night.

Wish I could but gotta go

Map of Kiso Valley

We started from the bottom to about the middle then veered off the Nakasendo trail to go to Kaida Kogen and Mt Ontake. Now we're heading back to the trail to go over the highest pass, Torii Toge, on the Nakasendo

One of the few Shinto shrine left with the original design before Buddhism and the Chinese influence came in.  Trust me it's there behind the trees. 

From here Ben tells us there's a steep climb to get to the trail head.  We start walking through the residential section of Yabuhara and there it is...THE HILL.  We started climbing and I was huffing and I was puffing but made it up the 75 yard hill.  I see the group going around the bend so I picked up my pace and there it was...the rest of the hill.  I was on a false summit...fooled again.

Water break at a spring water station.

For Jean

Trail head sign for Nakasendo

The top

Caldera on the side that erupted last

Aloha Nabe

Climbing down

On the way Dow we stopped at the mid way hut and met this tea master so we had the highest tea ceremony in Japan

This is for Mom...yup I tried

Oishi desu. Domo arigato gozaimasu

Back down for some tranquility and rest

So nice to be back