Day 22: Off day in Nagano

October 17, 2024

The forecast in Matsumoto for Saturday (today is Thursday):

Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 78F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.

This made me anxious and thrilled at the same time. Anxious because the hotel I had booked in Matsumoto was unavailable on Saturday, and the alternatives were very expensive, not to mention the hassle of switching hotels, potentially in a torrentially rainy situation. Thrilled, because it was a great excuse to stay in Matsumoto for an extra day to visit its castle.

I kept checking, and eventually a room opened up at our chosen hotel! So now we're all set. We just have to get there. The forecast for Sunday is pleasant, so hopefully we'll be able to start fresh and get ourselves out of these mountains before bad weather strikes again. I'm willing to ride in the rain, but not while also skidding down a mountain pass.

Of course, we have to get to Matsumoto before we can hole up there. Surprise surprise, it's in the next valley over, so tomorrow will be another day of grinding uphill and eating brake pads downhill. That's cool. We're getting pretty used to it.

As for today, yes, we did it! We stayed off the bikes! We didn't even go to a bike shop. Instead, we immersed ourselves in the atmosphere of the nearby Buddhist temple, Zenkō-ji. We expected to spend an hour or two there, but it turned out to be an all-day affair, peppered with short trips nearby. This area of Nagano is very peaceful and inviting, with lots of public facilities, including parks, restrooms, and benches. It was warm and sunny for about two hours, but the rest of the time it was cool with a slight breeze. Exceptional autumn weather.

The temple is a ten minute walk from our hotel.

I love these kind of random sights while strolling through a residential neighborhood. It would be even more charming if an animal lived in here.

Almost no one was here at 7:30am, so we could go full tourist mode without feeling cheesy

Donate a few hundred yen, get a little wooden block, write something nice, hang it here, receive good vibes. At least I think that's the idea.

We left the temple for a while to check out the shops, most of which hadn't opened yet. We found a coffee house, plunked ourselves down with a nice cuppa, and relaxed for a while with a Joe Pass solo album playing in the background. We then continued down the street until we came across what I would call a shopping arcade: a covered, car-free street lined with storefronts. This led us to a Watahan Super Center, which had a Daiso upstairs. It turns out we're still not sick of Daiso, and we still have little things we want to buy there.

From here, we walked to the train station and its tourist information center. We considered visiting some other places, such as the local art museum, but in the end we decided to head back to the temple to have lunch and visit the ticketed areas.

I like to find vegetarian-oriented restaurants when I can. A temple meal almost always guarantees this. I say "almost", because we stayed overnight at a temple in Korea once, and while they served us delicious vegan meals, the monks were eating fish for lunch. That was a bit of a head-scratcher. Since then, I decided not to assume anything.

What is it like to be a vegetarian wandering through the countryside in Japan? First of all, it helps tremendously to be able to ask what's in a particular dish, or if there's anything without meat or fish on the menu. When I travel, I have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards things like broth. If it tastes really fishy, it's a bit of a problem, but I generally try to convince myself that it's seaweed stock and just go for it.

I've temporarily loosened my policies enough to allow for some meat in my dishes as long as it's something like a couple of large pieces I could take out and set aside. This works well for things like ramen. For a while, I was eating a lot of soba and udon, but I felt like I wasn't getting enough vegetables or protein. We now buy soy milk frequently, and I eat more tofu than usual. We've discovered a lot of different vegetable side dishes at the konbini that work really well for both of us.

I don't want to bore you with the story of how I stumbled into my diet, but it may be useful to know that I've been at it for over thirty years, and while it's still annoying at times (mostly to the people who have to put up with me), I personally can't imagine living any other way. It started out as a practical and ideological thing: I could save money and also not feel so guilty about the resources required to maintain a typical American's lifestyle. After all this this time, those principles have faded, and now it simply seems foreign to me to think of animals as a source of nourishment. I understand that humans are omnivores, but I think it's neat that we have the intelligence to consider our options, and to follow our consciences to the extent that we are interested in doing so. I've been pretty insistent regarding this aspect of my lifestyle, and I think it's served me well. I'm not enlightened, but I feel a little bit lighter in some undescribable way.

Between being a bike tourist and being vegetarian, I end up eating a lot of pastries. My diet is anything but healthy while on the road. So there's that.

Apologies for the digression. On with the show.

Birds must have loved roosting here before the chicken wire went up. The temple guardians don't seem to mind being caged in.

This is the heartwarming story of a tanuki with a strong conscience, and a kind and understanding priest. Text in the following photo.

It became more lively in the afternoon, in a good way. And yes, that's a Starbucks.

No photography was allowed in the ticketed areas of the temple. That pleases me. It's respectful. It also means I have nothing visual to share. I'll try to describe one aspect of it. There is a stairway leading to a pitch-black tunnel (this would not have made a good photo anyway, ha ha). You walk through it with one hand touching the wall. It has twists and turns. It goes on for quite a while. The docent described it as a way of experiencing death and rebirth. We both felt something from having gone through it. Maybe not exactly what was intended, but it was evocative in the way a great work of art can be. There's another aspect of the journey, where you're supposed to feel around for a metal key on the wall. Loosely translated, it's a key to paradise. Im sorry, but that part is just mumbo-jumbo to me, and it's probably the reason our guide didn't mention it to us non-believers.

The temple museum was interesting. Among other things, it showcased paintings in which the historical Buddha, referred to in the descriptions as Nyorai, intervened in human affairs, always helping, never smiting. If you're going to believe in a divine figure, he seems like one of the nicer ones.

As a last hurrah in Nagano, we walked through nearby Jōyama Park to visit the zoo. The park is awesome. Go to the park. The zoo is creepy and sad. Do not go to the zoo.

We saw a few of these today. They have a rubber knot that, I'm going to guess, makes it quick and easy to pull off the cover. Furthermore, I'm going to guess that there's a firehose connection underneath. Elementary, my dear Watson!

The promised view from our veranda. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to look until the owner read me my veranda rights. I'll be here all week, folks! Don't forget to tip your server!

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