Last week a friend of mine took me to the Shimane University Library and showed me around. We found a room dedicated to the life and works of Lafcadio Hearn, a famous english author who lived for a time in Matsue. I checked out a book about his life called "Wandering Ghost - The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn". It was a fascinating read, and after I finished, Braden and I decided to visit his museum here in Matsue. The museum had many of his personal possessions, including his suitcases, some clothes, his pipes, pens, desk, etc, and next door to the museum you could visit the house that he lived in while in Matsue. It was a small house, without any furniture except a single desk, but it had a pretty garden, a garden that Lafcadio wrote about often while he lived there. The photo is of a part of his garden. Lafcadio only lived in Matsue for a little over a year (he was an English teacher here), but it was the first city in Japan that he lived in, and remained his favorite, even after he accepted positions to teach elsewhere in Japan, like Kumamoto and Tokyo. Lafcadio preferred the countryside to the city, but, like me, he hated the cold winters here :P.
On the same street as Hearn's house there's an old samurai residence that was converted into a museum as well. Inside the house they had on display many household items from the feudal era. It was really interesting. Both musuem were pretty small and humble, but they were also really inexpensive, which was nice :). In one room they had these mannequins set up like they're having some sort of meeting. This house, and Lafcadio's house, are both very close to Matsue Castle. Today Braden and I are going to take a tour of the castle, along with the elders from Matsue and Izumo. A friend of ours who goes to the elders' English class is a guide at the castle, and she's going to be our tour guide :). It looks like it might rain, but the cherry blossoms are blooming today, so it'll probably be very pretty up there. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!
Yesterday the sun was shining, it was nice and warm, and the cherry trees were blooming, so Braden and I decided to ride our bikes and enjoy the cherry trees around Matsue castle. It was beautiful! Matsue castle has lots of Cherry trees around it, and there are lots of paths and parks where you can just sit and enjoy the scenery. There were quite a few people there enjoying the lovely weather and blossoms, we even saw quite a few foreigners, who probably came from surrounding towns to visit the castle during its prettiest time. Matsue castle is the only surviving castle in the Sanin area (which covers a large portion of west Japan) so it`s pretty famous. We also visited a nearby shrine that was a favorite of Lafcadio Hearn`s while he lived here (If you don`t know who is he, read my previous post). There were some vendors there selling food too, so Braden and I bought a chestnut cream filled bun that was really warm and yummy. The vendors weren`t all that busy, they said that most of Matsue had come to enjoy the trees over the weekend. I`m glad we came when it wasn`t so busy ;). We didn`t go into the castle itself though. We were going to go on Monday with the elders but Braden had too many classes that day and couldn`t go, so we`re probably gonna go with our friend Ed some other day. The entrance fee to the castle is pretty cheap if you`re a foreigner (foreigners get a lot of discounts to cultural stuff in Matsue, which is pretty awesome :D). But even though we didn`t go in the castle, you can walk inside the outer walls all you want for free, and that was fun :).
