Japan Unmasked

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Masumoto

Checked into our hotel, then Kay and I walked to the 16th Century castle see pics. The castle is in really nice surroundings. Inside, the narrow corridors with wooden beam floors was quite dark. The views through the narrow windows into the gardens and across the moat were good. The stairs were quite high as I recall with no provisions for wheelchairs etc.

On the walk back to the hotel we had a mocha ice cream. Other flavours we will try are green tea, red bean. Other flavours available are all types of fish, beef, garlic, salt and others.

We returned to the hotel from the back entrance next to the car park. I spent 10 minutes or so watching people putting their cars into a lift, then getting a ticket from the warden and seeing the car being automatically stored on one of the 10 or so levels.

Observations after 3 days.

• The teenagers dress in the most outrageous clothes. Very "in your face" western.

• The girls wear shoes like I've never seen (should have taken pics but thought it might seem a bit weird) with up to 6" heels.

• Some women where separate sleeves on their armless tops. Apparently staying as fair skinned as possible is the aim.

• Most of the billboards have western models.

• Ladies colour or streak their hair in odd colours like lime green and orange.
The streets are spotless. I've not yet seen a fly or any insect, come to think of it I've not seen any cats or dogs (no I don't think they eat them, that's the Koreans; ancestors of the Japanese).

• Tipping is not expected or given in restaurants.


Tom had arranged for us to have dinner at the beer festival outside the hotel. Unfortunately it started raining and the al fresco dinner was cancelled. We all went out to the beer tent and found that the beer (foreign) was around £10 a pint. Stuart and I decided to have some beer from the vending machine in the hotel instead. I had an Asahi Super Dry at 5% it was OK. I then tried an Asahi clear again nice. At this point the other people who had gone out and had a beer called us for dinner. Tom had managed to book us all into a local restaurant. Not realising the portions I ordered Yakitori (skewered chicken), sat next to me was Adriano who ordered something similar. We got 3 skewers; not really filling. Having said that, the fact we were all sat around a table and had a chat was great. Ian ordered Uhmeshoe which was good. After dinner Tom asked some locals for recommendations on a bar. In fact they escorted us to it. It was a stand-up bar. The beer was OK, but I was still hungry. There was a MacDonnell’s near by so Kay and I went there. I had (recommended by Adriano) a prawn burger which was OK. Got sort of lost on the way back (so did Nicole and Gemma as we found out the next day), and had to go back to the bar and ask Tom who accompanied us virtually to were we back tracked from.

After breakfast we had a wonder around the hotel and bought some lovely cakes and breads from a bakery, on the way back we met Nicole and we all went back to the bakery.

At the rendesvous time we all met and walked to the station to catch the train to Takayama.

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