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亀清旅館・戸倉上山田温泉の行きか帰りの途中で寄れる人気スポットの１つは松本市。お城を見て終わるという人が多いけど、松本の魅力はもっともっと深いので是非、冒険してみてください。

私たち家族は昨日、久しぶりの親子のお出かけして来ました。

縄手通りや中町でぶらぶらして、アンティーク屋さんから若女将が喜ばれるブッティクや若旦那が喜ばれるアウトドアー用品の店まで、楽しい買い物だけで一日が終わりそう。ところどころに川辺の公園や井戸があって、子供達も飽きない。

その途中で必ずおなかがつくはずなので、食事は個性的なレストランは沢山ある。今回はバーガー専門店のU2さんとピッザ・パスタのシアトルさん(どこかで聞いた事あるような名前…）

文化の面でも松本が進んでいます。今回は松本美術館の前を通るだけ;私たちの目的が佐渡島から来た太鼓の「鼓童」のコンサート＠松本市民芸術会館。

５月２８日（土）と２９日（日）はクラフトフェアーマツモト２０１１年です。日本中でも代表的なアートアンドクラフトのイベントです。

この機会で、ぜひお出かけしてみてください。そのあとは、亀清旅館へお風呂をどうぞ。車で約４５分、電車なら松本駅・姨捨管４５分。

Matsumoto City is a popular place to stop on the way to or from Kamesei / Togura Kamiyamada Onsen. Our family took a rare day off to go for a drive and explore the town.

Unfortunately, many visitors to 'Moto see the famous castle and call it good. There is so much more to the town, people should really get out and explore it.

We based our wanderings around the shopping streets Nawate and Nakamachi. There's everything from antique shops to clothing boutiques that the proprietress loves, and outdoor goods shops that I love. And with all the water features around town including riverside parks and drinking wells, the kids never got bored.

You could conceivable get lost in the shopping all day, but you eventually have to take a break to eat. And Matsumoto certainly has you covered with a corncupia of unique restaurants. This trip, we patronized burger shop U2 and pizza / pasta restaurant Seattle (Hmm, I've heard that name somewhere).

It would be a shame not to also see some of Matsumoto's cultural attractions, too. This time we passed on seeing the city's art museum because we had plans to see the Kodo taiko concert at the classy Performing Arts Center. Some of the patrons were dressed in kimono -- people in Matsumoto really know how to do it up right.

Next weekend is Matsumoto's annual Craft Fair. So if you are in Nagano on May 28th or 29th, consider attending the Craft Fair. And if you weren't planning on coming, perhaps you should -- this is a legitimate arts and crafts fair, one of Japan's largest.

And then make the trip to Kamesei for a bath (only 45 minutes by car, or 45 minutes from Matsumoto Station to Obasute Station).

クラフトフェアーまつもとのHPはこちらClick here for Craft Fair Matsumoto's website.

野沢温泉は長野県の温泉街の中で、我々旅館経営者達も憧れる温泉地です。立派な個性的な、歴史のある宿は沢山そろっているし、「大湯」が代表する外湯は１３箇所、源泉は目で見える(鼻でかめる）麻釜、世界レベルなスキー場、お土産屋さんがいっぱいあるにぎやかな温泉街、そして毎年の意月１５日に行う総祖人まつり、日本三大日の祭りの１つ。

魅力はとにかく沢山ある野沢温泉。

２年前にお湯の隣の３７０年の歴史のある常盤屋旅館が倒産し、外資系に売られそうでした。

一般的な宿がそうやって外資系になって、安売り出せば「仕方がない」と思われるけど、常盤屋旅館が野沢温泉の中心にあり、一番歴史の長い宿。

つまり、野沢温泉の魂旅館。

地元の村人の何人かが手を上げて、スポンサーになって、常盤屋をレスキューしました。

その中の若旦那が私の県青年部委員会のメンバーで昨日は他の委員と常盤屋さんで集まりました。その歴史のストリーを教えていただき、館内を案内して頂きました。代表の千人風呂や「個室食堂」が流行る前からの個室食堂など。個性的な、老舗な宿で感動しました。

亀清旅館はいつか戸倉上山田温泉の「魂宿」になれるかな？

Nozawa Onsen is the type of onsen village that people in the ryokan industry love. It's got a handful of really classy inns, the 13 public baths including the venerable 'Oyu', the 'Ogama' hot spring source where locals gather to wash vegetables, a world class ski resort next door, a lively townscape with lots of small shops to browse, and the annual Fire Festival held every January 15th.

Across the street from Oyu is Tokiwaya Ryokan, founded 370 years ago -- Nozawa's most historical inn.

2 years ago, Tokiwaya was set to go bankrupt and be bought out by a foreign firm.

If a minor ryokan were sold out and turned into a budget accommodation, the townspeople no doubt would have resigned themselves to that fate. However, Tokiwaya is the heart and soul of the village. A group of locals decided to pool their resources and by the inn, keeping it locally-owned and maintaining its rich legacy.

The 'wakadanna' (junior owner) is in my prefectural level junior innkeepers association committe, and some of the other members and I gathered at Tokiwaya yesterday. We got to hear the story of the inn, as well as get a tour. The '1000-person' bath and the individual dining rooms (made even before such a style became the fad) were especially impressive.

I wonder if we can develop Kamesei Ryokan into becoming a 'legacy ryokan', too.

常盤屋旅館のHPはこちらClick here for Tokiwaya Ryokan's website.

先日の若女将と若若女将との飯山巡りドライブで、菜の花以外にも目的がありました：高橋まゆみ人形館。

２２年４月にオープンした人形館に全国各地から大勢の観光客が訪れています。まゆみさんの独特な人形つくりは田舎のおじさん・おばちゃんの表情・雰囲気そっくりです。

人形館の展示場は思ったより狭いですが、一つ一つの人形の顔、展示の背景を見て、ゆっくり楽しめる。

そして、人形館の周りはまた私が好きな街の雰囲気で、伝統的な建物が沢山ありました。特に、仏壇通り。飯山は仏壇生産で知られているって聞いた事があったが、この仏壇通りは今回で初めて見ました。良く考えたら、当たり前の事ですが、日本でこういう商店街があるのは最初、驚きました。お神輿を売っている店もありました。祭り男の私には興味深い所です。

仏壇通りと人形館を出て、飯山の町の中と周辺を回りました。また面白い現象がありました：畑で働いている農家のおばさんや、町に歩いていたおじさんとかの姿を見て、まゆみさんの人形の感化はどこから来たか、分かる様な気がした。

Besides seeing the nanohana flower fields, our drive to Iiyama had another purpose: to see the Mayumi Takahashi Doll Museum.

Opened just in April of last year, the museum has attracted visitors from all over Japan to see Mayumi-san's unique dolls that adroitly depict the type of country bumpkins one is apt to see in Iiyama's backroads.

The museum itself has surprisingly little display space, but that is more than compensated by the enjoyment that can be had from looking at each individual doll's expression and composure, especially in relation to the background displays.

The doll museum is set in a neighborhood filled with the type of traditional Japanese buildings that I love. Especially impressive is 'Butsudan-dori (street)'. A Butsudan is a Buddhist altar that most families in Japan have in a prominent place in their houses. I had heard that Iiyama is a major manufacturer of Butsudan, but I wasn't aware that there was a whole street of Butsudan shops! I guess it makes sense, though, to have a Butsudan shopping district here in Japan.

There was an interesting phenomenon that came out of seeing the doll museum. Driving around the town and in outlying farming areas afterwards and seeing the old ladies bent over in the fields or the old gentlemen walking along the back streets, I started to get a sense of where Mayumi-san got the inspiration for her dolls!

Mayumi Takahashi Doll Museum
2941-1 Iiyama Oaza, Iiyama City
Tel (0269)67-0139
Hours: 9:00-17:00 (Apr-Nov); 10:00-16:00 (Dec-Mar)
Closed Wednesdays
600 yen for adults, 400 yen for middle and elementary school students

高橋まゆみ人形館のＨＰはこちら。Click here for the Mayumi Takahashi Doll Museum website

信州の代表的な花見は色々ある：高遠の桜、あんずの里の杏、戸隠・鬼無里の水芭蕉、等など。

今日はそのもう一つを始めてみました：飯山の菜の花。

写真ではよく見ましたが、自分の目では初めてその黄色い花の畑と千曲川・北信五岳の背景を見ました。

亀清の若女将と若若女将と三人でドライブで行きましたが、「菜の花公園」が素晴らしかった。写真だけじゃ菜の花畑の良さが分からない。もちろん、花の甘い香りもあるけど、公園で菜の花迷路があって、入り込めば不思議な感じになる。

飯山の菜の花公園では４月中旬から５月上旬の間、８００万本が咲くそうです。その最中のゴールデンウィーク（５月３日～５日）に「菜の花祭り」が行って、千曲川に菜の花私船など、沢山の楽しみがある。

今年は春先の温度が低かったせいか、菜の花は１週間ぐらい遅れている。（ＧＷに行った皆さんは少しがっかりした様）

Nagano has numerous headlining flower shows: Takato's cherry blossoms, Anzu no Sato's apricot blossoms, the the pure white 'mizubasho' (unfortunately named 'skunk cabbage' in English) of the Togakushi and Kinasa highlands above Nagano City, and so many more.

One other is that of the 'nanohana' blossoms in Iiyama, which I saw for myself for the first time today. (Nanohana also has an unfortunate name in English: rapeweed. Forgive me as I stick to the Japanese name, nanohana, which has a much more elegant feel.)

I had seen pictures of the fields filled with yellow flowers with the Chikuma River and Nagano's 'five northern peaks' in the background. But pictures don't do the flowers justice. For one thing, seeing them in person means you can enjoy the sweet scent of the flowers wafting on the breeze.

And for another reason, Iiyama's main nanohana park, called simply enough 'Nanohana Park', has a nanohana maize allowing you to immerse yourself in the field amongst the plants bursting with yellow color.

My wife and daughter and I went for a drive today to Iiyama and thoroughly enjoyed the nanohana show. The plants normally bloom between mid April and early May, with special events scheduled from May 3rd to the 5th coinciding with Japan's Golden Week holiday. This year, however, the blossoms are about a week later than usual.

菜の花公園の詳しくはこちらClick here for more info (in Japanese) on Iiyama's nanohana.