Japan 2015 - Day 5 - Sado Island to Nagano

April 11, 2015: Tsubame Sanjo, Takada Castle

Meeting time for breakfast was at 7 a.m. I was curious to see what breakfast would be like at this Ryotsu Yamaki Hotel, given the fact that the previous night's dinner was so spectacular. 

Tatami mats in the dining area required that we remove our shoes. 


As usual, most of the tour group members were already there before us.


Look how pretty, yah!


Again, the food was wonderful.






We met promptly at 8:20 am to catch the hydrofoil back to Niigata where we boarded our bus.  Our first stop was Tsubame Sanjo, a region known for its metal work.  


This is where I bought the knife, kitchen scissors and pair of tongs, photo of which I shared with you earlier.


Landon said that the knife is "mean". Now I wish I had gotten a slightly bigger one too. Ack. 


After shopping, we returned back to the bus to head for our next stop, the Takada Castle grounds for some sakura viewing.  But first we made a pit stop for a fast lunch and bathroom break.


I wish I had studied the words for "flush" here so that I could've avoided a major mishap a few days later at another rest stop.  I'll tell you about it later.


Look how cute!  A kiddie toilet!


Most of the people opted for the food from the inside.


Me and Sweetie got ours from the outside.


We had musubi, ika yaki, tsukune and mochi yaki.


I thought it was most considerate that they had these towels to wipe your counter with. 


On to Takada Castle. So pretty, yah. 


It was raining kinda hard when we first arrived, but it totally stopped after awhile.  Thank God because it was really hard taking pictures while trying to cover myself as well as my gear with an umbrella at the same time.






















































I'm so glad that the sakura were still around while we were there.  I had heard that the warmer weather had caused them to bloom earlier than expected so I was a bit worried that they might be gone before we got there.

Here is our room at the Hotel Kokusai 21.  Huge, yah, for Japan! I loved it.  We used the space to spread out and organize our suitcases which were getting pretty stuffed by now. 


After resting a bit we met at 6:00 pm to have dinner at Dono Dono Restaurant.


I don't usually eat raw fish, but I liked this appetizer. It was really good. Unfortunately, the rest of the meal proved to be the only meal of the whole trip that I didn't care for. The main dish was a pork dish that seemed undercooked and had a gamey taste to me. The dining room was kinda dark, so I didn't even bother to take any more photos.


My ahead-of-time research showed me that about 4 to 5 blocks from our hotel was a popular temple called Zenkoji Temple. There was supposed to be an illumination festival going on, so me and Sweetie excused ourselves from the table and left to go look for it. 

The hotel staff directed us to the closest street that led to the temple. After walking about a block we realized that we were in a really dark and secluded-looking area. I told Sweetie that if it got to be too scary that we should turn back.  

After about a 10-minute walk up a slightly inclined hill and a right turn, we did reach the road to the temple.  Only thing . . . nothing was "illuminated". It was dark and closed looking.  So we decided to head back down, this time on a more lit-up street.  I remembered that there should be a covered mall on this street, and we found it . . . Nagano Gondo!


But all of the shops were closed here too.


But that's okay.  It was good exercise anyway.