Buddhist Baptism, Shinto Stairs and Scrumptious Soba in Togakushi

We woke up, bleary-eyed and not ready to move at about 5:30. With the morning service at Zenkouji set to start at 5:53, I figured we'd stay in bed. I figured wrong.

Early, windy, a bit rainy, early

All the tourists stayed for the first portion of the service. I confess, I had no idea what was going on, and spent most of the time checking out the interior of the temple and enjoying the chanting, which had some neat quarter tones and a bit of that double-voice singing (singing two pitches at once). They had an enormous taiko drum in the back that I was hoping someone would whack at least once, but sadly, that didn't happen. What did happen was that, after some time, we were shuffled from the viewing area to the front of the temple, told to kneel as the high muckymuck form the temple came around and smacked us on the head with prayer beads. I think I was baptized...

All in all, it was an interesting experience. I'd have sat there to listen to the chanting all morning, but no one else stayed (except those actually attending the service, you know, as Buddhists), so we wandered out to the only open shop in Nagano at 6:30am

Well, that's helpful, Sean...what is it?

A koiyaki shop. What is koiyaki? Well, the Japanese have a wonderful treat called taiyaki, which is basically a fluffy pastry filled with red bean paste that is baked in the shape of a red sea bream,

or tai in Japanese. Yaki means bake, or cook, so it's basically called "bream bake". OK, that sounds disgusting, but the pastry is delicious. Koiyaki, is exclusive to the Nagano prefecture. As the store owner put it,

the store owner

Nagano is pretty far from the ocean, and so no one catches sea bream in Nagano, so they decided to make something they have. Koi. Koi, by the way, are carp. Pretty, colorful carp that are traditionally kept in garden ponds and moats, kind of like huge fishbowls.

Not only did they change the shape to koi,  they replaced the red bean paste with a local specialty, hanamame, which, literally translated, means Flower Bean. The plant where the beans come from flower quite nicely, and have large, sweet beans.

They look like soy beans on steroids

We had them on our first trip to Japan, and loved them, though I though at the time, they looked like they could have been large beetles. In any case, they are sweeter than azuki (red bean paste), with more of a nutty flavor, more like pecans or walnuts. So, I give you, koiyaki.

Japanese presentation

Koiyaki! Absolutely delicious

After that healthy breakfast, we made our way back to the hostel to shower, pack up and head back into the mountains. On the way, we saw a few inari (Shinto fox gods) depicted doing traditional Nagano activities.

Like eating soba. Soba is everywhere in this area

With prayer beads, waiting to smack unsuspecting tourists over the head with

We got moving, after a "real" breakfast from the konbini, and within three miles, were already 200m above the city and climbing.

It was cool, overcast and beautiful cycling weather. After about an hour and a half, we reached the top, and traveled through a fairly recently made national park

which was essentially the forest on top of the mountain, now with campgrounds. Very nice, scenic ride, and short. This was our shortest day of the trip (~20 miles), mostly because there's nothing else close by. The next destination, Yanaba, is another full day's ride away, As a result, we pulled into Togakushi quite early (1pm). We couldn't check in until 3pm, so we decided to get some lunch.

Now, I had mentioned soba noodles were big in this area. Well, every and I mean every hotel, inn, hostel, woodworking shop and insurance company in this city also sold soba. Every building had a sign advertising their soba. Well, half of them were open, some of them were insanely expensive ($100+ per plate) and there was nothing else to eat. No other restaurants. If you stay in Togakushi, you eat soba. We had no idea where to go, so, being hip, modern tourists, we consulted Yelp, keeper of all gastronomical wisdom, who pointed us to a little shop just south of where we were staying.

Futsuyado

Cozy little place with about 8 tables

The soba was delicious. We're always concerned about the broth they serve soba in, because it can range from no fish to half the ocean, and if you ask if it has fish in it, they'll say no (because they didn't chop up fish and throw it in). I had Mushroom Soba, while Sumi had Tempura Soba. Both were vegetable-based broths with a tiny bit of bonito added, but mostly drowned out by the other flavors. The noodles were firm and tasty. Good job, Yelp-san.

We made our way to our hotel,, Oshi Ryokan and wow! We were the only guests tonight, and they upgraded us to a larger room.

Did I say room? I meant apartment

We had a foyer, a balcony and a large bathroom (not shown).
This is seriously larger than some apartments in Tokyo.

After admiring out room and cleaning up, we walked outside to the Togakushi Shrine. We chose Oshi Ryokan because it was literally across the street from the shrine. This is a very old shrine, with some legends dating back to 210 BC. Verified records show it being present at least since 849. It's actually a collection of shrines built into the side of Mt. Togakushi.

Hoo boy, they love their stairs

A view from the top

This is a newer building. Notice the same "imagined elephants"
here as seen in Nikko at Tosshogu.

Beautiful lacquered windowed doors inside

Stone lanterns were being lit as we left. The big trees surrounding
this area are over 800 years old

We saw just the lower shrine. There is a middle shrine about 2km up the mountain, and the upper shrine another 2km past that. We had no idea it was so big, and didn't have time to climb the mountain anyway, but this whole area screams for another trip, to explore all the stuff we passed up on.

Back across the street, we fell into our futons. Tomorrow will be our last day of cycling (sniff), as we head into one last ski resort in Yanaba.