MATSUMOTO TO TOKYO

As I left you from Sendai, here are a couple departing photos, first, the Westin Sendai, then, the Sendai Station:

My Shinkansen bento:

The Fall colors from Sendai to Tokyo, just a day later, looked better.  However, the view on the train from Nagano to Matsumoto was spectacular.  Visitors hardly take this rout.  If you're in Japan, go now!

This will most likely be the highlight of the whole trip.  The scenes exceeded the beauty and hues of Nikko and Nara.  

We checked into Matsumoto Dormy Inn, a typical Japanese railroad station hotel,  It's better than it sounds.  On the walk to Matsumoto Castle, here are some scenes worthy of capture:

Then, at the top of hill, Matsumoto Castle, one of the three premier historic castles, along with Himeji and Kumamoto.  The oldest wooden castle in Japan. This site began as a fort in 1504, on which this castle was built beginning in 1590.

I saw two gold koi, but, somehow they didn't quite look like Pearl's Gold Koi:

On the other hand, the one on the bottom looked somewhat similar, and it has been a couple years since I last came here.  There could, however, be three gold koi among the thousand or so mostly black carp.

No executive club at Dormy Inn, so we went to what Matsumoto is famous for:  soba.  Miyota, the one highly recommended, was a close walk from our hotel, but had a long line.  I can't believe I waited for a whole hour.

Finally, we were seated, and my companion fortunately spoke some Japanese, and we ended up ordering duck soup with soba.  The picture showing our set had a dish of what looked like ahi or toro sashimi.  Nope!

To my shock, it was raw beef, and possibly tongue or horse meat, for a day later I could still feel a wad in my alimentary canal.  That rice paddle held some baked miso where you took small chunks for flavor.  The duck soup was delicate, heated from below by a flame and excellent.

You had a choice of hot soba or Zaru Soba.  I ordered the cold version with tempura:

You finish by pouring in some hot soba liquid into the sauce to make a soup.  For two people with one glass of beer, the cost was a reasonable $45.  But if you throw in the waiting, the experience was a toss-up.  If you go to Miyota, find a time when there is no line.

Then, on to Tokyo, but first, that violin girl I mentioned yesterday:

We caught the train to Shinjuku.  My bento

In Tokyo, we went to Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens, home of shoguns from 1629.  Tomorrow, a few photos.

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