Hello! This is Morgan Drea, currently reporting to you from the beautiful city of Matsumoto.
After our free day in Nagoya, it was time for us to head to our next destination: Matsumoto. Like almost every travel day, we had plenty of time to kill on the train, so we took this time to either just relax, work on journals, or catch up on sleep. Although I took the choice to sleep, I did take a few photos before laying down my head.
After arriving to Matsumoto, we took the time to drop off our bags and have lunch. As it turns out, we had the whole night to ourselves, so most of us just did our own thing until about six o’clock when everyone was starting to get hungry again. While the group was searching for dinner, I began to notice the town’s obsession with frogs, so I made a game of Eye Spy with myself to see how many I could find on that strip of road.
Upon further research, I found out that this street (Nawate Street) had a story behind all of the frog figures hiding along the walkway. The nearby Yohashira Shrine used to be a big landmark for pilgrims, so the shrine keepers took it as opportunity to promote many kinds of entertainment to attract visitors. With stalls that line both sides of the street, it was known for the sound of flutes and drums, the laughter and shouting from children and vendors alike, and the singing of the Kajika frogs from the Metoba River nearby. But in 1959, a typhoon that lasted two days caused debris to fill the river, block bridges, and flood the town. With the river now congested, the frogs had left for higher ground and cleaner water. Without the the frogs whistful nightly chorus, the street had lost its spirit and charm.
Although the frogs never came back, in 1972 the ‘Karuizawa Daimyoujin’, a mini frog shrine, was created as an effort to bring back the spirit of the old street. From then on it has been known as ‘Karuizawa Machi’ or ‘Frog Street’.
Shamelessly, a few of us broke from the dinner group to play some Pokémon Go before eating. But after a crushing defeat in battle, we continued to explore the cracks and crevices of the city, and even found some cats to feed along the way.
This big guy in particular was the first one we found, and the least skittish of all the cats we fed that night. He had a big gash under his neck and would flinch away whenever I moved my arm, but at least he wasn’t afraid to get close.
And then down an alleyway we heard some meowing and decided to investigate. There we found a few kittens jumping across the rooftops! Sadly, they were too scared of us to try and eat from our hands, but we couldn’t reach them anyway.
From there, we spent some time enjoying the sunset from the bridge, taking in the ambiance of the evening. Even with the overcast sky, you could still see the blazing colors of the sunset reflecting on the clouds, which couldn’t truly be captured in the photo but the beauty is still evident. I have found sunset to be my favorite time of day during this study abroad. The colors always seem more vivid and lively, or maybe its the mountains that give it a special glow, but its breathtaking every time.
As the sun set, we decided to just grab some food from the local Family Mart for dinner instead of looking for somewhere nicer to eat. Luckily, you can never go wrong with buying from convenience stores here. There always seems to be fresh pastries and onigiri on the shelves, so needless to say, we were still pretty happy with our meal.
But from there, everyone went on with their night. Some people went to sleep, and some stayed up watching anime together. Overall it was a pretty laid back day, but it was much appreciated since we know there are more strenuous days to come.
Morgan Drea
Animation
Japan Lived Experience 2019 