Overnight Trip: Day Two

Throughout the night, we did crazy stuff, like dressing up as "samurai's". Well, we looked as if we were going for a costume party, eh? Oh, we went from room to room to "visit" people, and getting people to pay up the taxes to the feudal lord.

Oh, by the way, that's our Japanese teacher. Shh, she doesn't know I'm posting her photo here. Or else she'd say dame(ダメ)! No!

Yeah, that's when we made that stupid film (if you can call it a "film"). Didn't really had that in mind at that time. We were just filming it ad lib, for fun. (Refer to The Four Samurai, September 25, 2006)

In the morning, we headed for Matsumoto Castle (松本城). The 400-year-old castle is actually 6-storey. The third floor, a dark room without windows was a secret from the enemies. Warriors stayed there during wartime.

We should be able to see the alps but the weather wasn't too good.

There were stuff on exhibition, like this samurai armour.

Guns.

Canons. It's kind of strange to imagine samurai's fighting with these weapons, though.

This used to be the daimyo's (大名) seat. Bow to the feudal lord!

With uneven, steep steps the castle is easy to defend and hard to attack.

A view on the castle's surrounding from the top floor.

The castle, from the opposite view.

Our last stop on the way back was the grape farm （ぶどう狩り), for an eat-all-you-like!

Ah, grapes! Grapes! Fruits are expensive here in Japan, grapes included. This "buffet" was only 1000 yen!

And they're big ones! Like typical genetically-engineered grapes in Japan, you pop the whole grape into you mouth, press it with your tongue, and the skin just comes off. You'll just have to spit it out. GE fruits maybe creepy to some people, but the consolation is you're not eating the chemical.

Just when I thought we'd have plenty of time there, we were told to get ready to head back to the campus before I had enough! Jeez. Don't think I've eaten 1000 yen worth of grapes.

~ End ~