Nakasendo Touring Day 3 | Real estate sales consulting for the wealthy is Glory Management K.K. @Tokyo | Travel Blog Fine Travel Read

Nakasendo Touring Day 3 (2024.6.18)

At the university reunion held the night before in Nagoya, many people were saying, "It looks like it's going to be stormy tomorrow."

It's the rainy season, so I've prepared well for the rain. I'm wearing a Yamaha rain suit from top to bottom, and spraying the helmet shield with the motorcycle manufacturer's water repellent chemical . I've changed into rain boots . I've wrapped my belongings in a 70-liter garbage bag, for a total of four items.

If you follow these basic steps, even if you're touring in the rain, you won't get soaked and uncomfortable.

However, when I actually looked outside, although there was no wind to call it a storm, rain was falling since the morning, at what could be described as the maximum level of rainfall.

My original plan for today was to meet my relatives living in Nagoya for lunch starting around 11am, then arrive at my accommodation for the night, Matsushiroya in Tsumago-juku, in the evening and enjoy the old townscape of Tsumago. However, since I had time until my lunch meeting at 11am, I decided to visit Atsuta Shrine early in the morning, then Arimatsu (an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings) before heading to the lunch location .

However, with the heavy rain this morning, even if I visited Atsuta Shrine and Arimatsu, it would be just a formality and I would not be able to enjoy it, so I quickly changed my plans and canceled the above two. As with anything, it is important to be flexible and adapt to the situation when traveling.

I was planning to have coffee with my aunt at a cafe in Nagoya Midland Square at 11 o'clock and then eat eel at 12 o'clock, but there is no motorcycle parking lot at Midland Square either. I asked the manager where the motorcycle parking lot was, but he said he didn't know...💦 In the end, I had no choice but to search on my smartphone in the rain, and it took a long time to find it.

I had never been to a commercial facility in front of a large city station like Nagoya Midland Square on a moped, so I was surprised that there was no motorcycle parking lot. However, when I looked into it later, I found that Roppongi Hills has a motorcycle parking lot, while Maru Building and Yurakucho Itocia do not. I also looked into how to announce this on the facility's website, and while Roppongi Hills, which has a motorcycle parking lot, discloses detailed information such as the location, Maru Building does not have a motorcycle parking lot, but has a page called "For those coming by motorcycle" where it discloses information about motorcycle parking lots in the surrounding area. On the other hand, Midland Square and Itocia did not list any information about motorcycle parking lots in the surrounding area.

That's the difference, the kind of service customers want... (laughs)

If a customer who happens to come by on a motorcycle is told that there is no motorcycle parking lot, will they say "Yes, I understand" and go home right away? In all likelihood, they will ask, "Is there anywhere nearby where I can park my motorcycle?" The question is whether the parking lot manager can answer that question. Or, whether the operating company is attentive enough to make the manager able to answer. This is an aspect that affects the overall impression of the facility.

If they were paying attention, they would have disclosed the information on the facility's website in advance. If they did, the parking lot manager would naturally know about it sooner or later... Commercial facilities and hotels are facilities that directly interact with customers, so this incident made me realize once again how important such small considerations by management companies are.

The conversation has gone off track, so let's get back on track.

From 12 o'clock, I had Hitsumabushi with my aunt and my cousin who joined us along the way.

While eating, I got a call from a friend who was a company president and who I went to college with. I told my aunt that it was probably about work, and I answered the phone.

He is a CEO, but he lives a nomadic life, recently buying a villa in Niseko and now staying there and giving instructions to his subordinates by phone or Zoom. He said, "I look forward to your travel posts on Facebook every time, but it's a waste to distribute them on Facebook, where only friends can see them, even though you have some great content. Why not make it available to everyone on Instagram or a blog?" He added, "I want you to come to Niseko. I think if you write an article about Niseko, you can make inroads in the Niseko market."

This was very helpful and accurate advice. Niseko is an attractive area with high real estate prices, but I was reluctant to enter the area due to the geographical distance and the impression that there were many competitors. However, as my friend said, if I could disseminate information on the area's attractions and the kind of life one can live there through a blog, I might be able to find a way to thrive in a market with many foreign real estate agents...

I'll be going to Niseko on my scooter this September, so please wait for me~ (laughs)

The conversation went off track again, but that's how my lunch with my aunt and cousin came to an end.

Luckily the rain had stopped by 1:30pm when we finished lunch.

All that's left is to keep riding to Tsumago-juku.

I finally arrived at Tsumago-juku just before 5pm. After checking in at my lodging for the night, Matsushiroya, I put my luggage in the room and immediately went for a stroll around Tsumago-juku in the evening.

This was my second time staying at Matsushiroya , as I had stayed there about 10 years ago. Shintaro Katsu himself stayed at this inn during the filming of his movie "Zatoichi."

In Tsumago-juku, there is another long-established inn called Fujiotsu besides Matsushiroya, but Fujiotsu recently stopped operating as an inn and only serves lunch, so Matsushiroya is the only long-established inn in the inn.

At Matsushiroya, the owner is basically in charge of all operations including serving food, so they only accept three or four groups of guests per day to avoid exceeding capacity.

The best photo spot in Tsumago-juku is undoubtedly the spot with the "camphor tree with its bent eaves," and Matsushiroya is located just 15 seconds away from this spot, making it in a great location.

I sat on a wooden bench in front of the camphor tree until it was time to eat, gazing at the old townscape with a beer in hand, and reminiscing about the events that had happened to me in the past 10 years. It was evening, so there were hardly any tourists around. Time was passing slowly. I'm so happy to be back in Tsumago. Thank God!

Now, it was time for dinner, so I changed into my yukata and headed from my room on the second floor to the Japanese-style room on the first floor for dinner. There were three other guests staying that night (besides me, there was a young French couple and one Japanese man).
Matsushiroya's specialty is carp dishes, and last time we were served carp sashimi and simmered carp .

I was relieved to see that the menu hadn't changed this time either (laughs).

This is carp sashimi

This is sweetly boiled carp.

When I stayed there last time, there were carp swimming in the pond below the walkway, so I asked "Are the carp served with your meal from the pond?" I was told that the carp for meals are farmed separately by the inn, and they serve young carp under the age of five.

Both the carp sashimi and the boiled carp were delicious.

It was already dark by the time we finished eating, so we grabbed our geta sandals and the inn's lantern and explored the night scenery of Tsumago-juku. It felt like we had traveled back in time to the Edo period.

By the way, at Matsushiroya, the guest rooms and the corridors are separated only by sliding doors, so you can hear what the people next door are saying, and the sliding doors do not lock.

I think it's difficult to stay with children...

I took a bath at the inn and went to sleep early.

Distance traveled on Day 3: 101km