Today is my last full day in Japan. Tomorrow I will be writing my blog post in the morning, which to you will seem like I wrote it the same day as this post, but to me it won't be.
For my last full day in Japan, I visited Matsumoto, which is about two and a half hours north of Tokyo. This would have been an impossible day trip from Osaka, but it's doable if you're in the Tokyo area, just remember that the trains to Matsumoto don't run often, so you should plan some extra time for waiting at train stations (I learned this the hard way).
On the way there, I had a pleasant surprise: on the way to Matsumoto, you have a very cool view of the North side of Mt. Fuji. I never got the shot I wanted, which is from the more visible south face. It can be taken from the train from Osaka to Tokyo, but the clouds usually cover Mt. Fuji, and so it hasn't been visible at all on any of my trips to tokyo. Today, however, I could finally see the summit.
You can see the pictures here, but for some reason, it won't let me upload the Mt. Fuji pictures to the blog right now. On the way to Matsumoto the summit was clear, but on the way back a small cloud clung to the top of the mountain.
Matsumoto Castle is also called the Crow Castle, because of its distinctive and unique black coloration. Unlike the Osaka castle, which is a ferro-concrete reproduction created after the original was destroyed in WWII, Matsumoto Castle still has all the original wood and stone work. Where the Osaka castle was a modern museum devoted to what the castle had once been, complete with escalators, Matsumoto Castle instead is completely preserved internally.
Castles in Japan are either one of these two (original or reproduction). Purists to castle hunting in Japan usually say that the original castles are much better than the reproductions because they are 'authentic', but having been to one of each, I would rather say that each has its own purposes and effects. I didn't truly understand the structure of castles until my visit to the Crow Castle today, but the museum at this castle had less of the history of the castle and was more a lesson on its structure. I did learn that it was controlled for 30 years by Takeda Shingen, one of my favorite Medieval figures.
The Takeda Shingen story is long and full of details, so I will give you the summary. For years and years Takeda Shingen, also called the Tiger of Kai, had wars with his rival Uesugi Kenshin, or the Dragon of Echigo. Both were renowned tacticians and they fought to a draw on at least four separate occasions. I like to imagine they had a bit of a friendly rivalry by the end of their conflicts with one another.
The castle was taken by Oda Nobunaga when he tried to unify Japan, which is also an interesting story about the Tiger of Kai. Takeda Shingen was the only Daimyo (Warlord) in Japan with the tactical prowess to stop the Oda conquest from taking over all of Japan. At the battle of Mikatagahara he used his battle expertise to defeat the combined armies of Oda and Tokugawa. He later died of mysterious circumstances in camp and without his leadership his armies soon fell, but one wonders if Japan would ever have unified if he had lived to thwart the Oda plans.
But I digress. The castle itself was magnificent, and not for the first time a nice Japanese person offered to take my picture in front of the castle when I was standing outside. I have decided that Japanese are simply a lot nicer to tourists than Americans are, on the average.
Like I said before, all the original woodwork survived the widespread firebombings of WWII, which some would contribute to luck, but I like to think it has something to do with a legend I learned today. Apparently, a specter of a rice goddess (or something, I don't really remember) showed up on the wall one night and gave the guard a bag of rice. If they agreed to deify the rice and make offerings on the 26th of every month...and this is the word for word translation now...the spirits would protect the castle from "fire and enemies". Which basically sums up WWII. And still the castle survives today, so that could have something to do with it.
Also among my pictures you will see another discovery I made today: my bathroom has a small square of mirror space that is heated, so that it never fogs. I think that's pretty neat.
Cory
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