I woke up early in the morning to once again take pictures of the bath. Although it was a more reasonable time. I was actually a little surprised that there were some people up at five in the morning to go to the baths. Granted I was the first one into the bath and I had maybe ten or so minutes to myself. But I went to take a picture of the outside bath on the roof and when I came back into the main bath area, there was a guy in the water. I hope I didn’t surprise him. I exchanged “good mornings” with him and then went back to my room to get a towel.
Here is my view from the dining hall.
Today we went to visit the shrine in Yahiko. It was a place with a lot of history. Our guide was excellent and shared a wealth of information. I really should have used my IC recorder to capture everything he said. In fact I haven’t been using my recorder at all this whole trip. I think I’m going to try and use it at the sake festival to record my thoughts on everything I try. But here is the temple.
After the shrine we went back to the hotel. We had about 25 minutes before we moved on to Niigata, so I took this opportunity to get some shots of the hotel. This was very fortuitous. I wasn’t able to get pictures last night and this hotel was really beautiful. I will always regret not being able to get pictures of the restaurant. But if I ever go back with Kana, I’ll certainly get my second chance.
Then we moved on to Niigata. First we went to the hotel. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to receive permission to take pictures. All of the other hotels had no problems with pictures as long as I didn’t take pictures of the guests. However, I think since this place is more of a corporately owned hotel, there may be legal issues involved. But we left the hotel and went to eat lunch. We stopped at a ramen place. The ramen was pretty good. After eating we headed over to the station to pick up our guest. He works for the city’s tourism board. He brought us to two places. The local rice cracker factory.
And a museum. But it was also the home of the most wealthy family in Niigata. It was crazy.
This is a one hundred tatami mat room. It was HUGE. The fact that someone owned this place was amazing. Here is a little tidbit of how rich these people were. When the seventh generation son was married, the wedding ceremony had a three day course meal. The menu was five meters long. Then they went on their honeymoon in Kyoto. For 70 days.
Then I saw this brick wall and decided to climb it.
I got to the top very quickly. However, this wall used to be like 4 stories tall because it used to be a prison. But the city decided to renovate the building. Except they want to leave a little bit of the wall as it was a part of the city’s history. What they ended up doing was getting my father-in-law, Tadashi, to come to Niigata and renovate the building and figuring out a way to keep the wall intact. Before leaving for my trip, he told me a little bit about the prison and why he went to work in Niigata. I was very happy to get the chance to see this little piece of Niigata history. Even though it is so far away from our home in Tokyo, I’m directly connected with the history of this place.
Sorry for climbing on your wall Tadashi. Here is a much nicer and more respectful picture.
Then we went back to the hotel. We ate sushi. Since Niigata right on the Japan sea, they have excellent sushi. Here is what I had for dinner.
It was a pretty good meal. The sushi was better than the sushi I’ve had in Tokyo. We also ordered a bunch of other Japanese style foods, but I forgot to take pictures. “Next time.”
So that is the end of day 4. Thankfully this place doesn’t have a bath and I’m not allowed to take pictures. Therefore I get to go to sleep at nine in the evening and wake up at seven in the morning. I’m going to need the rest because tomorrow is a big day!