A short stint in Nishi-Ojima: Azumi-no, Matsumoto, Nagano

I just copied almost all my recipe posts from fb to this blog. Even though the prime objective of me setting up this blog is as a journal of things that I rarely do (read: cook) while I am away from M land, I figure it would be nice to post something other than food once in a while.

Well, this was in May 2013. The whole department minus Dr OM went for a conference in Matsumoto, Nagano. Nagano was the place where they had winter olympic in 1998.

pic: Nagano town

Anyway, I won't bore you with our conference details but we as always, whenever attending conference, our main aim is to go and see, visit, and do stuff. Not that we don't really want to learn new stuff from the conference, but basically, you learn more by reading journals. Oops.. :p

Ah well, forget the conference. We went to this wasabi (Japanese horse-radish- the famous side kick to sushi) farm. Supposed to be the largest in the country. And considering that wasabi is extremely popular in Japan, it might also be the largest in the world? Trivia aside, the place was quite big. , not in Matsumoto town where the conference was held but in the neighbouring town , Azumi-no. So we had to take the train which only ran once every hour. And there was no place for you to touch your electronic ticket (suica) at the station. Everything was old school. You can only slot your ticket into the gate, and in Hotaka station, Azumi-no.. you just drop it inside the small basket in front of the train guy. Interesting.

Pic: Hotaka station, Azumi-no

At Hotaka- station, we had to take a taxi to the wasabi farm. And our taxi guy was this extra friendly uncle who insisted we go and see this one monument on the way. We were reluctant to go as none of us knew what monument he was talking about but he even said he won't charge extra for stopping. So we went, took some photos and headed for the wasabi farm.

Pic:The monument which none of us actually knew why is it there for

At the wasabi farm, they sold everything with wasabi inside.

Wasabi ice-cream, wasabi beer, wasabi hot dog, wasabi bun, wasabi cookie.. and lots more. You can actually pay to experience how to make wasabi pickles and some more stuff that I forgot what.. but we were not that interested.

Auntie selling wasabi buns

Wasabi-no oyaki (Wasabi bun)

Wasabi ice cream

Wasabi rubbish bin (nope.. not made of wasabi :p)

The menu

Wasabi can only grow where the water is very clean

Wasabi

Praying to the wasabi lord? This farm has its own legend. Quite interesting. About this one warrior who was too strong when he was killed, his enemy cut his body and buried the pieces separately so that he won't be resurrected.

After an hour of photo session with wasabis, we went out and tried to catch ourselves a taxi to go back to the train station. The moment we stepped out of the farm, one taxi literally swooshed in front of us, opened the door and said that his friend told him that we might need a taxi to go back. Now that's what I call excellent service!. Of course, if this wasn't Japan, we would be extremely suspicious, but to those who have never been to Japan, their taxi drivers are the best in the world!! THE BEST! Those in M land are faaaaar out of their league. So we took the taxi and headed back to Azumi-no station. Again, being little ambassadors of the town, this taxi uncle became our guide and showed us around before going back. And no extra fees for that!

Why put that geta (slippers) there? beats me..

The famous beautiful water of Hotaka.. you can drink it from the source...

Enlarge and read it for yourself

Oh.. we also went to Matsumoto castle. It was famous because of the battles... Very different from the palaces and castles in Kyoto. The ones in Kyoto are very nicely decorated, fit for Kings, queens, princes and princesses. But this one is more like a fort. With holes for guns. And the inside are full of weapons used during the wars.. hundreds of years ago.. The steps inside were very narrow and steep so that only one person can pass through at one time.