9th May - Matsue: Castle, Museums and Tea-house

Today was to be cruisy day, and it was! For the first time in quite a while it was a leisurely start. The forecast was for light rain from about midday onwards. We walked for 30 minutes to the Matsue Castle grounds, hoping to find some little old second-hand shops on the way. On our two previous trips we thoroughly enjoyed nosing through old china, particularly tiny sake dishes and small sake bottles. We now have a fun collection, and would like very much to add a few more items to it. Shops here don't open until 10am, but we didn't see any that looked like possibilities anyway.

We walked through the modern entertainment district

We arrived at the castle at about 9:30am. It certainly is impressive, and is distinctive from most other castles in Japan because of its dark wooden exterior (instead of white painted plaster). It was constructed in 1611 and is one of the only five "National Treasure" original castles in Japan. On this trip we will be seeing three of the five (not something we set out to do), and have previously visited Himeji. There are only 12 original castles still in existence. A number of the old famous castles have been rebuilt in modern materials like ferroconcrete - it's not the same.

Matsue Castle

As always when visiting a Japanese heritage site, it is necessary to take off your shoes at the entrance and then walk around in either socks or supplied slippers. We have quickly learned that the Japanese wear their footwear very loose-fitting and can therefore rapidly slip their shoes on and off. For us, it's tedious having to undo laces and then retie them each time. 

The staircases between each of the five floors of the castle are very steep and at least one woman appeared to be near to having a panic attack. The lower levels had chutes for stone-dropping shoots (for landing on the heads of any attackers), platforms for guns and bows and so on. The castle is more correctly described as a fortified watchtower designed for surviving a siege than a permanent residence.

View from the castle back into Matsue

From here we wandered through the castle grounds, past the odd shrine, towards the Tanabe Art Museum. On the way we got a video call from Bella looking for some feedback on her house sale back in Nelson. Having fulltime wifi has again proved excellent. We also tried to get a haircut for John, but even though the place was wide open, nobody ever appeared when John shouted out hello. Maybe another case of not wanting to deal with foreigners?

A nice little Inari shrine on the way

We did stumble on a little antiques shop full of dusty relics, including quite a few of the little sake cups we like. We did buy a couple, but the market seems to have changed and they are now selling for vastly more than they were on our first trip, and we have enough already that we are not prepared to pay too much.

The Tea Museum featured a fine collection of tea making paraphernalia and some ceramics but John particularly was more interested in the architecture. It is a modern building by Kiyonori Kikutake and was designed to be a modern interpretation of the traditional teahouse. It really was a lovely and clever building which vaguely reminded us of a Le Corbusier building because of the ramp.

Next we explored an ex-residence of a rich samurai. We don't get tired of these open tatami-matted buildings, where rooms can be expanded or reduced in size by the clever use of sliding walls. Most of the rooms open to provide expansive views of the private gardens. As always, the residence was very simple, with very basic facilities for cooking and bathing.

Front entrances - visitors to the left, normal entrance to the right

A wheeled parade float of taiko drums

I had been looking forward for a while to the next item on our itinerary, the Mei-mei An Teahouse. It was turning into a rather gloomy day and starting to rain so we weren't sure that sitting admiring a garden while it rained would provide the atmosphere we were seeking but thought we'd give it a go anyway. The teahouse complex was very small, with a very old and historic teahouse, a newer one and a small garden. There was nobody else there. The man on the reception had to ring endlessly to get an answer from the teahouse to give them warning that someone was on their way for a cup of matcha tea.

We had a quick walk around the garden then opened the door to the teahouse. A little woman greeted us and directed us (after taking off our shoes of course) to the large tatami-matted room. She soon returned, knelt in front of each of us in turn and presented two little pieces of traditional Matsue confectionery. Next she brought out a cup of warm frothy green matcha tea and again knelt in front of us. It is all very formal. She was quite delightful and we managed to communicate via Google Translate. She was very impressed to hear that we have visited Japan three times and have been to two other teahouses in Kumamoto (Kyushu Island) and Takamatsu (Shikoku Island). It was just lovely sitting quietly by ourselves for a while, but soon John and I were discussing ways we can Japanify our holiday home in Hanmer Springs. We'll planning some alterations anyway, and may just have worked out a few new tweaks!

Mei-mei An Teahouse

Teahouse garden

By now it was raining but, still being on the lookout for second-hand shops, we were keen to walk the 30 minutes home instead of find a bus. John was in need of a haircut so when we spotted a barber's sign he thought he'd give it a go.

The barber's shop was run by an old man, with a younger assistant who actually did the barbering. Karen was sat down with a cup of tea, I was shown to an ancient chair and the work began. A lot of discussion about how I wanted it done, via Translate and photos, then he was away. I think he probably took three times as long as my Nelson barber, and finished with some nice-smelling hair tonic and a short neck and shoulder massage. A pretty nice cut too.

Haircut time

Back to our room for an afternoon of train planning. We can board most trains without seat reservations, but being so close to Golden Week some trains are still pretty full, so booking means we can sit together, which we quite like. We worked our way to the end of the trip, taking us some two hours. It's tricky to sort all the connections at each end to get to and from accommodation or sights, and choosing trains that arrive neither too late nor too early. In the end we did 6 bookings, adding up to 12 booked trains and several more unreserved.

We are still photographing new manhole covers to add to our collection

We've made a couple of changes to our original plans. We had intended to visit Naoshima Art Island, but have decided to spend a day in Kyoto instead, as there is one particular temple we'd like to see, and we are considering getting a really nice secondhand kimono to hang at home. It is very hard to find them, but we know of a place in Kyoto that has hundreds.

On heading out for dinner we tried to buy bento boxes for the train tomorrow, but the bento place was closed up. Dinner was back at our izakaya of 2 nights ago. It was lovely to be loudly and cheerfully greeted by the 4 staff, and our table neighbour from the previous visit. Rather than a business partner like last time, he was there tonight with his "daughter". We're rather unconvinced it was really his daughter! She wasn't dressed like a daughter or acting like a daughter.

Making our omelette - note how basic the kitchen is

We chose a few different dishes to last time, including what was called a beef tendon miso stew - delicious. This time we were directly in front of the main cook and were able to see how things were made. As before, the staff were super helpful and the food was delicious. We've done very well this trip with the variety of food. We seem to have settled on onigiri, or rice triangles with a little central filling, for our lunches. They are easy, cheap, filling, and tasty.

A typical Japanese hotel bathroom - always a deep bath