My Neighbourhood/Neighborhood - Masato

Plenty to do in Matsumoto: Karen's report

Matsumoto City Museum of Art

What can visitors do in my home city?

• You can visit Matsumoto City Art Gallery because it has a lot of pieces of work by Kusama Yayoi and other artists. You can see her art outside, a spotty Coca Cola machine, and a spotty bus too.
• I recommend Joyama Park because it has a lot of beautiful cherry blossom trees, and you can see wonderful views of Matsumoto and the tall mountains.
• I recommend eating soba in a restaurant called kawa-fune, near the castle. Soba is locally made grey noodles. You can eat them hot or cold - I prefer them cold.
• You must visit Matsumoto Castle, because it is a National Treasure. It has a long history, and there are many events there eg an Ice Festival in January, a Kendo competition in November, a Craft Beer Festival in August...
• Nawate Street is next to the Metoba River, and is good for shopping, eating Tayaki (from the Furusato shop), and beautiful views. You can have a coffee & pastry in Sweets, a bakery.
• Nakamachi is good for souvenir shopping in unique stores, there's a morning market on Saturdays, and it has a lot of restaurants.
• The film 'Orange' was filmed at the historic Agata-no-Mori building, where there is also a lovely park.

Karen

First footprints are the best!

This morning we waited for the sun to warm up a little bit before our pre-schoolies togged up for a wintry walk around the neighbourhood. It was beautiful, fairly warm, with the sound of people digging their paths clear & snow melting & dripping from rooves.

Plenty of snowball ammunition, which Sota aimed exclusively at Jim :) When we got to the river, we found a new target - the frozen river itself. Icebergs to break off as we bombed it with big dollops from above. The Troll kept his head in. With Wellies on we gingerly slipped down to the riverbank and made the first footprints in the pristine snow; always the best! It was a bit deep - spare socks and a drying rack when we got back...but who cares when you're having this much fun!?

Along our way we saw bitterns, a heron, and lots of little tweetie-pies looking for food. One big kite was looking at them hungrily too!

We left a mini snowman on the bridge. He might last longer than our footprints? If it snows again tonight, we might not find him though!

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