Sunday - May 4 - Matsumoto

Slept so well at Take's home. Woke up to a lovely holiday breakfast of oak leaf cakes and more rice and red beans, salad, fried mackerel, strawberries, cherries, rice, miso with tofu, special green cakes with "edible grass" and green tea. Tsumugi and Miki ate with us. It's children's day so they are celebrating and Keiko has prepared many lovely holiday dishes! I love salad with breakfast.

breakfast with family

oak leaf cakes

 

making oak leaf cakes

Stopped at Take's elementary school. Beautiful grounds and old tree. He said they have about 200 children in each elementary school. We could learn something from the Japanese!

local elementary school

trees in bloom

 

Take's school

Heading for Kamikochi - (Japanese alps) and so are these bikers. That's always a good sign.

Local bikers heading for Kamikochi

together beside the Azusa River

clear waters

monkeys along the trail

family time

Bridge over the Azusa River

Chubu-Sangaku National Park

snowboarder heading up the mountain

locals enjoying the beach

beautiful trail

reflective pond

at the bend

Lovely drive through the mountains to the Japanese alps for a hike along the river and over the bridges. The water was azure and perfectly clear. There were many people there, including snowboarders, skiers and backpackers. Stopped for a lunch: rice balls in seaweed - tuna, salmon, spicey who knows what and bananas. Bought some bear bells for hiking back home. Then we drove off in our luxury van (it's like a Japanese limo) toward another area of the mountains where we met up with Ross Chambless friends. They run a lodge and offered us a hot spring onsen followed by coffee, lovely peach cake ball and fun conversation. There was a bear and her cub that just walked by the window while we were in the onsen. Or so they told us.

Izumi Osaka and her husband

love the sign translations

Izumi Osaka is a character. She and her husband have run the lodge for 40 years. Her father and mother owned it before her. She has visited Utah several times with the student program.The forests have not leafed out yet, but the wild cherry trees are blossoming here and there along the hillsides. The Japanese build an awesome road that sometimes cantilevers out, and many tunnels through the mountains. 

We headed for our ryokan and unloaded our luggage. We offered to take Take out for pizza and beer - an American tradition after hiking. We bought one "seafood" and one "juicy meat" variety at the local pizza hut. While waiting for the pizza we hit the grocery store for drinks and then returned to see fireworks in the night sky. There was a little Japanese girl outside watching the fireworks and jumping up and down with delight.

The seafood pizza was Take's choice and was actually delicious. It was covered in shrimp, squid and broccoli. Yes . . . We brought it back to the ryokan and enjoyed it thoroughly although Take could not have the beer because he was driving.
Richard and I crashed in our room. Poor Rich is coming down with a cold and woke up in the heat of the night. Luckily I had some Theraflu night time and Rich figured out how to turn on the air conditioning with a little Japanese translation on his phone. Back to sleep - Take is picking us up early for more mountain adventures.