If you saw the shirt I was wearing I did not bring it just because it had kanji on it. The kanji says "San Shao" which is Japanese for "unbound hand" it is a term for Kempo fighters who do kumite without protective gear. Essentially bare knuckle fighters of Japan. A few of the instructors who participated with me got the shirts too.
I was one of the few people that went all over the grounds, there is a small pathway and a special bridge closed off to everyone that was only used for Ieyasu Tokugawa, and has been closed ever since. I was trying to get some pictures of the area while the grounds keepers were pruning the bushes, one of the waved me over and said it was ok to take pictures. I made sure that I stepped in the same footprints they did as they were raking the gravel at the same time.
I also got some incredible shots that most no one else will
On my walk back I thanked the grounds keeper who let me over there, he said "you're lucky we never let anyone here. I told him thanyou again, he pointed at the scars on my knuckles and my shirt and said "no thankyou" and bowed as I left.
Then I saw a homie "see what I did there?"
The hotels in japan provide nearly anything you would need, sure does spoil you, the town is small and have bikes for the guests to use to get around, gives a cool feel of the city too.
Had a small dilemma that I had to fix, filled up my gopro and found a store called Edion, an electronics store that is like Frys, Bestbuy and New Egg on crack, bought a hard drive and the hotel let me use the computer in the lobby to transfer the stuff over, using windows in japanese sure was interesting. Also stopped in a supermarket for food.
Sushi and related was cheap and incredible. The jerkey however was $30US for the big bag and $10US for the small bag, the japanese are no big on protein and jerkey was no exception, if you wanted it, you had to pay for it.
Matsumoto is a skiing and castle town with no nightlife to speak of, so I caught up on sleep and was up bright and early for my last day.
The next day the weather was incredible, cold, high 40's but not a cloud in sight.
There was a group of old folks doing tai chi and I decided to join in, but far away and out of sight
