Kanazawa Day 4: Miso Soup and the Stairs of Doom

The final day of our trip. So sad to be leaving such a beautiful area. I think that because when we first came to Japan, we arrived in the city and hadn't really left (well, me, anyway) despite exploring the Tokyo area, like Akihabara, Asakusa, and Harajuku. Even in Kamakura, unless we wanted to wonder further out in the heat and humidity, there wasn't much country scenery to take in like there was in Kanazawa. Sitting in the shinkansen and watching the tall buildings become trees and mountains was a bit of a sensory shock. I had grown so accustomed to seeing city life in Japan that I think my brain started associating that image to Japan overall. When I first saw the countryside, I was taken slightly aback, remembering suddenly that this is the part of Japan I wanted to and expected to see.

And now I don't want to leave. -_- Though it may have less to do with the area's beauty and more to do with not wanting to go back to class. >_>

Anyway, we packed our bags again and the walk down the hill to the bus was much less painful. I left the room early so had a little extra time to go back and take some pictures of the outside of the ryokan.

The perspective is a little lost in the photo. :/ I took it from the bottom of the hill leading up to the ryokan. It is hard to tell, but I do have my camera horizontal, not looking upward toward the top of the hill, but straight forward.

I thought I was finally done once I reached the top, only to find that the climb would continue on this small path paved with rocks.

Coming in the evening before, I did not have time to really enjoy the beauty of the ryokan grounds.

I don't know if you can make out the path leading upwards from the right side of the photo in the background. That's how small the path was.

Like a scene right out of a storybook. On the left, you can see Justin making his way down the same path I mentioned before.

This tree was also on the ryokan grounds, turning a beautiful, vibrant red to mark the coming of fall.

Once I headed back down the hill toward the bus, I happened upon these purple flowers that I couldn't resist taking pictures of. With little time left before the bus would leave, I opted to use the kit lens instead of the macro and again, it came through really well.

Next stop is the Ishii Miso Factory, where we will have a tour, learn how miso is made, and eat some fresh miso food for lunch. But before that, more beautiful mountain scenery!

I just have to commend our bus driver for some mad driving skills. We had to traverse some very narrow mountain roads, including long tunnels that had traffic going both ways. The tunnels are only JUST wide enough to fit two buses passing each other. It is such a tight fit that they both have slow to idling speed and creep by each other to prevent a collision. At one point we hit a curve in a tunnel at the same time another bus was coming on the other side. Curving tunnel plus long, straight bus equals potential disaster. But they were pros. They inched forward together as if perfectly synchronized. It took at least 10 minutes to pass, and we both had long lines of cars waiting behind us, but we got out of it unscathed! We gave the driver a round of applause for his driving awesomeness.

But it wasn't just that one that was awesome. I think we had a new bus driver everyday, and they were all pros at backing up into tight parking spots, even with other buses around them. They must have pretty high standards for bus drivers here, but it makes sense with these narrow roads. There's a stereotype that all Asians are bad drivers, but these guys blow that stereotype to pieces.

Now on to the miso factory.

Shin-san standing nearby as the miso factory guide explains to us about how miso is made. Basically, it has three main ingredients: Rice, barley, or soybeans; salt; and a fungus called kojikin, which is similar to yeast. It is fermented in these giant wooden containers (I love the bamboo braiding around it) for 1-3 years and comes out as a thick pasted used to make the well-known miso soup, sauces, spreads, and pickling of vegetables or meat. 

Here, the guide is showing us the ingredients and explaining that as the miso ages, it gets darker. 1 year old miso is called white miso, and 3 year old miso is red miso. The red is supposed to taste better. Kinda like wine I guess.

The guide also explained that miso has great benefits for our body. It is proven to help cleanse toxins from our system and even reduces the chance of getting cancer. So people, eat more miso!

There are no more pictures because the tour was more of a "hey, listen to me talk about miso for a few minutes and look at this room with all these barrels and then this other room with more barrels and hey, here's the restaurant, have some food."

We were then treated to red miso soup with rice, a small salad, and a slice of tofu with red miso sauce, followed by miso ice cream for dessert. Delicious.

I am bringing home a bottle of the miso salad dressing I bought at their store because it's AMAZING and will finally be eating my salads instead of pushing them off to the side.

So much good food on this trip.

Don't be fooled by its cheesecake-like appearance. It's tofu, but still delicious to me.

I had some extra time after shopping at the miso store before we left so I wondered around and found this persimmon tree in front of the factory.

I want vines like this growing on my house.

All right, another long bus ride (our last one) to the last stop before heading back to Tokyo. Matsumoto Castle. It's Japan's oldest wooden castle, built more than 400 years ago, and is one of the four castles in Japan designated as a national treasure. The main tower is 6 stories high, and the stairs were, to be honest, the worst staircase design I have ever seen. Their need for narrow structures to save space was applied excessively to stairs, resulting in uneven heights in the steps and very steep angles. The trek up to the ryokan seemed so insignificant after this.

All my dreams about seeing Japan finally feel like they are coming true. Castles, temples, shrines, miso, sushi, chopstick making...such a wonderful experience.

A display I wanted to check out but we had less than an hour to explore the castle before having to leave to get back to the bus. The shinkansen doesn't come every ten minutes like the regular trains do.

So tall...

A view from the front entrance to the castle.

You'll see these holes in the next photos.

View through the vertical openings shown in the previous picture.

An old map of the castle and its surrounding residents.

Getting to a higher floor. I think this is the third.

Beautiful roofing.

 

I think these pieces used to be part of the castle's structure.

One of the more reasonably built stairs in the castle.

Openings under the roofing. A couple of Japanese guys were quite amazed with this. They screamed out to each other "suge!" which kinda means, "AMAZING!"

Fourth floor, I think.

Gun museum on one of the floors.

Still fourth floor I think.

Missiles, maybe?

Cannon

I don't know if you can really tell how steep and tall these steps were in the picture, but according to that sign,  it's almost 16 inches.

Yup, it's a two-way staircase. Kinda like that tunnel. I guess they just like living dangerously here. >_>

Fifth floor.

Finally made it to the top! Here's the ceiling of the top floor.

The 6th floor is designed as a square, each side facing a cardinal direction. Here is the east facing side.

A view of the ceiling from another angle to reveal this...whatever it is, hanging from the top.

South side view.

West side view? I didn't keep track of these pictures very well. -_-

Either west again, or north side view.

Definitely north side view.

Aw damn, I forgot about these cursed stairs. Down was harder than up. Your feet keep expecting to reach the lower step and it feels like it never does because it's just so far away.

According to the sign in the back (we're back on the fourth floor now, exiting side) this covered area is believed to be the emperor's chamber.

A couple final pictures before leaving to return to Tokyo and our boring student lives.

And that's it! I might try to get pictures of the festival I saw on Sunday near my dorm later, but we'll see how that goes. >_> Again, hope you enjoyed following me on this amazing trip. In one month, we'll be taking another, shorter trip to Nikko. Can't wait!