It’s been four years! Times have changed and the island exile is no more [Nottore! Matsudai Castle 2023]

03-11-2023

10:15 a.m.
I left Echigo Yuzawa station to rent a car.

There was a standing buckwheat noodle restaurant called “Yuzawa-an” inside the station, so I took a picture of it just in case.

It is only natural that soba and udon noodles are sold, but it seems that “ikura-tarako-meshi” and “beef koshihikari” lunch boxes are also sold.

In my mind, I am already thinking about tomorrow night. Echigo-Yuzawa Station is sure to be crowded on Sunday night. What to do for dinner is an important question. We adults can just say, “We’ll eat when we get back to Tokyo,” but there is no way to convince a two-year-old to do that.

It is important to find places to eat so that he does not get cranky when he is hungry.

Especially this year, we had to be careful with the schedule for “Nottore! Matsudai Castle” this year, I am not sure what the schedule is. No, the official website correctly states that “the venue closes at 3:00 p.m.”. But “seriously?” I wonder.

In my memory, there was a time when the lottery was over and the Hail Marys were sung at almost 4:00 p.m. Even if the event ended early, it would still be a good time to visit the hot springs in the neighborhood. Even though we finished early, there was a time when we had to stop at a nearby hot spring and we were just in time to catch the bullet train. So it is important to have plenty of time.

Again, there are restrictions due to the “presence of children. If it were just adults, I could say, “I don’t care if I get home late,” but with children, that’s not the case. I have daycare the next morning, and I have to be home at a time that is not too late. So I set the bullet train time early.

My son, Takeh, is being carried around in a stroller despite his reluctance.

He had refused to use a stroller, but he seems a little less resistant to the new vehicle, the stroller. When he gets tired of walking, he gets into the stroller by himself. Unlike a stroller, the stroller can be used like a chair.

10:17
In front of Echigo Yuzawa station. Oh, there is not much snow this year.

It’s getting warmer and there’s less snow on the mountainside. Since 2014, when I started participating in “Nottore! Since 2014, when I started participating in “Nottore!”, I feel that the snowfall has decreased every year.

Of course, there can be heavy snowfalls when the wind speed is at its highest, but the snow melts remarkably in March.

10:45
After renting a car, my first destination was a store called “Uonuma Sweets Garden – NATURA.

The original plan was to pay a courtesy visit to a farmhouse inn, Ushidaya, in Joetsu City that day.

After deciding to participate in the “Nottore! I contacted Ushidaya and asked if I could visit them to say hello, and they said yes. Team AWAREMI has stayed at Ushidaya several times, and we have enjoyed our stay there.

Now that they have two daughters, they are busy raising their children and farming. The farmer’s guesthouse business has been suspended. If it had been open, we would have stayed there.

The two daughters are the eldest of three children, with their son Takeh in between. I hope the children will become friends. It would be wonderful to have friends who live in a completely different place from where I live, in a completely different environment. It would be wonderful if we could see each other regularly.

However, although Ushidaya has given his permission, today’s departure is from Echigo-Yuzawa, Ushidaya is in Joetsu, and the inn is in Muikamachi, so it will be a long drive. Each trip would take an hour. We chose this restaurant because we thought it would be better to have a smooth lunch.

We chose this restaurant because it is near the road to Joetsu City.

We thought there might be many other restaurants in the area, but to our surprise, there are not many restaurants in this area, and there are not many choices. We decided to go here because it also sells sweets, which Ishi likes, and we thought it would be a good choice.

By the way, Ushidaya’s daughter had a fever of nearly 40 degrees Celsius, which spread to the rest of the family, and the situation became very serious. The courtesy visit was abruptly cut short.

This is a common occurrence with young children. A child picks up a disease and spreads it to his parents and siblings, causing more damage to those around him than to the child himself. It is a situation that I sympathize with and feel sorry for, so I said, “Another time! So I’ll leave it at that.

Takeh meets snow for the first time in his life.

He said, “Wow! What the heck!” I expected him to be surprised and excited. If I didn’t get that kind of reaction, it wouldn’t have been worth the effort to bring him to the snow country.

But since he was a little boy, we didn’t have to pay for his bullet train fare, nor did we have to pay for his lodging.

Unfortunately, he looked very cautious in the face of snow. He observes in his own way, “What is this?” and looks at the snow in disbelief. It wasn’t the “Bamboo running happily through the garden” the adults had hoped for. Hmmm.

I grabbed his hand and said, “Here, this is snow. Can you try to touch it? I let him touch it.

He seemed uncomfortable because his hands were cold and wet. He made a face as if he didn’t like it. Then she said, “Atty. No, they’re not hot. On the contrary, they are cold. He can’t say “cold” because he still only remembers the words “hot.

After that, his parents said, “See? It’s snowing!” but we didn’t get any of the excitement that only a child can get. Oh, I didn’t know it was like that. So that’s how it is.

It’s not so bad to be cautious about new things.

When I entered NATURA, I saw a sign that said “Tips for getting the most out of NATURA! When I entered NATURA, I saw a sign that read “Tips for enjoying NATURA to the full!

The first of the seven tips was “Try all kinds of food! The first of the seven tips was: “Always try all kinds of food! Wow, he highly recommends tasting.

After that, there was also a clause that said, “After tasting, you must try NATURA’s Original Herbal Tea Blend! There is also a clause that says: “After the tasting, you will taste NATURA’s original blend of herbal tea! Tasting followed by tasting? You are very generous. They must have a lot of confidence in their products.

Ishi happily entered the shop.

But there was nothing to taste, even though he looked for it. Oh, no.

There was a handwritten map of the store hanging in the middle of the store, and it seemed that there was even a “tasting corner” inside the store. But I couldn’t find a tasting.

Corona. I knew it was Corona’s fault that the tasting was canceled.

But it has been three years since Corona changed the situation, and if they stopped the tasting, they should change the label.

Giving up on tasting, I decided to have dinner at the attached restaurant, which opens at 11:00.

Apparently, their specialty is stone oven pizza. I also heard that “handmade fried chicken made seriously by professionals” is also very popular.

I heard that there is something called “fried chicken not made by professionals” as a comparison, but what kind of fried chicken is it?

Restaurant.

There is a salad bar. The selection is small, so it is suitable for those who want a little salad because pizza alone is not enough for them. It is not for those who seriously want to eat vegetables! It is not for those who want to eat vegetables.

While waiting for the food we ordered, I read a picture book to Takeh.

The picture book was his choice this morning, but for some reason it was called “Makuroke no Kekke-san”. It is a story about a ghost that may appear if you stay up late at night! but for some reason he loves to read it. Simla, back, back! The reader may find the story’s plotline exciting.

Tonight is the first time he is staying at the inn, but is it safe for him to read these ghost books? I guess so, but to begin with, he still doesn’t understand at all where we are and whether or not we are going home by the end of the day. Also, he doesn’t really understand the concept of “ghosts” and doesn’t think they are scary, so he’s fine with it.

To begin with, I think that fear of ghosts is more likely to be nurtured if you live in a spacious single-family house. If you live in a condominium, and when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it is only 10 steps away, there is no “jet-black space surrounded by silence,” and there is no room for scary things to lurk.

(continued)

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