Nagano is about 4 - 5 hours' drive away from Tokyo. So after arriving in Tokyo around 9 pm, I took an all-night taxi service to her home. I ended up arriving around 3 am.
Chelsea's Home
Chelsea's Home
A simple house in design and décor - and simplicity is a style I like.
The family has a garden and much of what I ate during my stay was fresh from the back yard. Here, Chelsea's brother is watering some veggies, and sorting through edemame (soybeans).
There is fresh, cold water flowing through irrigation canals beside her house, the perfect environment for hundreds of these little green frogs.
The Scenery
Besides being known in the U.S. for the 1998 winter Olympics, Nagano is also a well-known tourist / resort destination within Japan due to its beautiful scenery and mountains. Chelsea and I walked, rode bicycles, and took the train (one time).
As they say, it's really difficult to do justice to the beauty of the place with a camera. At one point we rode our bicycles within just feet of a hawk perched on a fencepost.
The Wasabi Farm
Nagano is well known for its wasabi farms, since wasabi needs cold water to grow, and cold water naturally flows down from the mountains. We visited a wasabi farm that is open to the public. The gift shop had every imaginable type of food made from wasabi. I bough wasabi ice cream (delicious) and a small stainless steel wasabi grater.
The wasabi is growing under the tarps. Cold water has been irrigated to flow by it in continuous streams.
Children and adults put their feet in the cold water that will turn you tingly in just a moment.
The water was drinkable. Here an old man is cooling off.
Chelsea's School Days
We took the train to a nearby city where Chelsea went to high school (Matsumoto). I can't imagine the round trip she had to make each day - about an hour or more each way, first riding her bike to the train station then taking the train. This city has a castle, which we visited, and a miso factory where we ate lunch. Everything (including the ice cream) was miso-flavored. Again, delicious!
The view from the train station.
Enjoying our miso-flavored lunch.
The vats of miso, fermenting.
More gorgeous scenery. Seriously, this place is like a mountain paradise.
The Matsumoto Castle.
The inside was like a museum. Everyone needed to remove his shoes before walking inside. The only thing I didn't like was that the wooden floors were smoothed from so many feet that the ladders were a little slippery.
Ninjas!!
Matsumoto has these fresh-water drinking wells all around for thirsty tourists.
The Chihiro Art Museum
Chihiro Iwasaki (1918 - 1974) was a children's book illustrator, and her country home was located in a cottage on top of one of the mountains near Chelsea's home. Chelsea's father was kind enough to drive us there to have a visit. Besides Chihiro's works. many other children's books illustrators' works were there. I saw quite a few that I recognized from my childhood, including the illustrations of James Marshall (The Stupids).
We ate first at a soba (buckwheat) noodle restaurant. The soba is grown in the field outside the restaurant.
Not only is the museum gorgeous inside, but the scenery outside is just as much of an attraction.
The Food
Thanks to Chelsea's family, I'll never look at Japanese food the same way again. It was so fresh and so beautifully presented. I truly felt like I had stayed at the best "hotel."
Chelsea's family make their own plum cocktail.
Senko Hanabi
Perhaps my most favorite discovery of all was the Japanese traditional sparkler, the Senko Hanabi. Chelsea's mom bought fireworks for us to enjoy the last night I was there. Unlike most other firework traditions (loud and noisy = better), the Japanese tradition is to end the fireworks festivities with senko hanabi. They are a very small sparkler (8 inches or so) that you light in a crouched position, holding it near the ground. You should sit very still and quiet to see whose sparkler will last the longest. As you watch the sparks, you'll feel mesmerized and start to notice flower shapes, pine needle shapes, and others. According to what I've read, the tradition is supposed to calm you and help you reflect on the brevity of life. Very beautiful! I've never particularly enjoyed fireworks, but this little sparkler is a game-changer for me. I love it!!
Here's a great video of senko hanabi. Watch until the end to see how beautiful they are.
Many thanks to Chelsea and her family. This was truly one of the most restful and enjoyable vacations.
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