MATSUMOTO: MY ACCIDENTAL HANAMI AND SOBA MEALS

Matsumoto is a neat boutiquish town of a quarter million.  There are many "oldest" castles in Japan, but this city claims their is the oldest original, built just before 1600.  All castles are made of wood, and, considering that there were no electric lights in those early days, most were destroyed either by fires, World War II bombings and Meiji restoration fervor.  The famous Himeji Castle in Kansai, for example, was constructed beginning in 1333, and somehow survived all the above calamities, so...

Matsumoto has the largest wasabi farm in Japan and is noted for great soba.  So, of course, I had to have both.  Unfortunately, I began my walk at 3PM, and no soba shops were open.  Dying of hunger, and realizing that my blood pressure was subsequently elevated, at 3:30 I wandered into a 7/11 type store and picked up a 300 ml sake cup, a salmon musubi and a package of the Matsumoto version of Kentucky Fried Chicken for my personal hanami next to a small waterfall, bordered by Sakura trees and a swift stream.  I sat on that rock in the middle of this photo:

This was not a comfortable setting, actually, as I was the only one eating, a police station was located just 20 yards away, and people kept taking my photo, or, I should say, I was in the way of their photographing the cherry blossom trees.  Also, somewhat disconcertingly, between my rock and the waterfall was a spider web with a rather large arachnid:

While I'm not particularly phobic about spiders, I did remember my Rio de Janeiro bite a few months ago, where my hand swelled up.  However, Japan has no poisonous spiders...I thought.  I just Googled this subject, and, apparently there is an Australian redback that is dangerous, and can now be found in Japanese parks.  But this is that redback:

And it doesn't look like my hanami companion.

After my meal, I asked again about where to find soba in Matsumoto at 4:30 PM and was told to go to the train station.  This I did and had the best soba I've ever had in my life, amazing because I was not hungry at all.  I ordered an anago (salt-water eel) tempura with the soba, plus the #1 sake in Matsumoto from the collection below:

The total cost of both meals was approximately 10% of my Gion Okumura french lunch yesterday.  Here are Keiichi and his crew (if anyone in the following photo is reading this, please comment by indicating the name of your restaurant--Taka Ota of Shimizu sent me an e-mail indicating it is called Kurekino):

I worried about walking back to my hotel, not because of the sake, but the quantity of food in my stomach.  Thoughts of the exploding fat man in one of those Monty Python sketches came to mind.  If you wish to be grossed out, I dare you to click on The Meaning of Life.  On the other hand, don't!!!  Tomorrow, Sendai...then Fukushima?

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