Nagano road trip part II
Sorry for the late continuation of my weekend getaway. This week has been busy so if it means I’m going out just a bit more and writing less on this blog — I take it as a good sign.
At the lodge in Suwa, we packed up in the haze of a hangover and hit the road:
The last time I saw this kind of landscape was in Australia while Mr. D and I drove through Kangaroo Valley, which is south of Sydney. The lush greenery catapulted me to a storybook-like land again. You know how the stereotype of a country bumpkin feels confused and intoxicated when he steps into the city? Well, it’s the reverse for me. I feel like I can’t get enough of what I am seeing hurtling through isolated open spaces — I don’t get to see this everyday. Not at all. It was as if the close walls of the shoebox didn’t exist.
This is our drive through what is called the Venus Line, which is a famous route in Nagano. The windy twisty roads are a challenge for those who love driving and the scenery is just gorgeous.
We zoomed back into the suburbs for a katsu lunch:
I’ve always had it fillet style with a beaten egg poured over a bowl of rice so this cute style was a pleasant change. The sauce wasn’t overly sweet but it was still a heavy meal on the whole. We craved for a coffee to fortify ourselves for the rest of the long drive home so we sped into Matsumoto city.
Since we were in the neighbourhood, we thought we should pay the Mastumotojo Castle a visit. The imposing black and grey structure looked like what I would imagine in Shogun, a book about Edo Japan, with its manicured gardens and stark red bridges.
The moat actually doubled as a koi habitat. That’s a bright yellow fella whom I thought stood out from the rest. It was as if someone spray-painted him with fluorescent yellow. Pretty darn cool. His other carp buddies just looked like they should be steamed with some ginger and spring onion. Hmm… I should look for a good Chinese restaurant here that sells delicious steamed fish so I won’t extrapolate such carnivorous fantasies here. But I have to admit the other Singaporeans agreed with a chuckle.
Due to a traffic jam on the Chuo Highway, we pulled into Tokyo around 9pm and we thought why not head out for dinner in Omotesando. The tall neon-lit skyscrapers loomed over us as we zoomed pass the Shinjuku exit. I can’t tell you how surreal it feels. Even New Yorkers say that Tokyo is just huge and larger than life, compared to Manhattan.
We queued for half an hour to eat at this well-known gyoza shop. The set was so simple with the stir-fried bean sprouts and minced beef, steamed and fried garlic dumplings and cucumber drizzled with a miso sauce — all washed down with a cold beer. It was the perfect ending to a fun weekend. I felt pangs of sadness when I turned the key at the shoebox.
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