For the first time I'm feeling lonely, not that I haven't missed you all, often a lot, but I haven't felt lonely. Several of us went to the Matsumoto Castle after dinner to see it lit up at night. It was so beautiful but there was no one to really share it with or explore photographing it from different locations. My daughter called earlier to say she really missed me and was feeling abandoned being in Edmonton without me. And I am the only Canadian on this trip and I while everyone is very friendly I do feel different. It is also late and I'm tired.
Besides how I'm feeling now it was a great day earlier. We drove 3.5 hours much of it through tunnels and mountains. The Roger's Pass tunnels were amazing for their time and these are 3 and 4 times longer and about 10 times as many of them. An amazing feat built after the war. We got a glimpse of Mount Fuji before it was lost in clouds and learned a lot about volcanos. Between volcanos and earthquakes we were all glad to be away from Tokyo. We stopped for lunch at an artisinal Miso factory. It had been owned by the same family for 6 generations and maintained the original process which takes three years to produce the final product. Lunch of Miso soup was delicious and I don't usually like it.
Matseumoto is just what we needed after almost a week in the bustle of a big city. The drive up was specatularily beautiful. The mountainsides are lush and in full colour, a combination of cedar and mixed hardwoods. It reminds me of the Kangamangus in the Big Whites on steriods The town has modern areas but is mostly houses and smaller stores. Lots of older buildings and it feels like we really are in Japan. Young people speak more english than in Tokyo and are very friendly, especially the young families who are happy to have their children photographed.
We wore kimonos to dinner. I know why Japanese women took tiny steps, There are also public baths that I will try tomorrow, there is a wedding party here that has taken over the rest of the hotel. Now their kimonos are beautiful.
From the rest stop tower, Mount Fuji in the clouds
Making Miso
Matsumoto
More about these later
Even the buses look happy
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