A couple of weeks I went with David Morales Matsumoto (Nagano Prefecture) to view the ice sculpture festival.

In late January, every year takes place in Matsumoto the ice sculpture festival, where the best sculptors of Japan and some international sculptors. The works began to be created in the early hours of Saturday morning and some were just not built until Sunday morning.

Sunday is the best day to visit the sculptures located next to the castle of Matsumoto, and this day the works are fully completed.

The Matsumoto Castle also known as Crow Castle (Karasu-jo乌城) for black color of its walls is considered a National Treasure of Japan.

The castle was built in 1504 and originally named Castle Fukashi.

In this hall we came a curious thing because nothing else get a Japanese approached us telling us speak to us in English and to guide us so. David initially bolted without paying any attention to the man, but after he explained that he was a volunteer guide and visits to guises totally free, so the good man told us about plant by plant whole house and even let us touch everything opening and closing windows. The visit lasted over an hour, but certainly we learned all about the castle.

That night we went to a bar to watch the final match of the Asian Cup, won by the way the Japanese.

The next day we went to visit the Daio Wasabi Farm , which is the largest wasabi farm in Japan and which I already had talked earlier in this blog.

The farm was very curious and she could try several producer as beer made with wasabi, dango, hash etc. but the one that most mess to eat everything I was David.

Today we'll talk about one of the best known farms in Japan, it is the Daio Farm.

The Farm was founded in 1915 is located in one of the most beautiful areas of Japan, Azumino in Nagano Prefecture (known as the Japanese Alps). In Daio, dedicated to the cultivation of wasabi, and its quality much appreciated by the Japanese and planted in beds of volcanic gravel and watered with water from the area rich in minerals, giving it a flavor and unique qualities .

Currently the farm in growing Wasabi Japan's largest, and has become a tourist center importante.Los Japanese go to admire its stunning surroundings and know how to eke out one of the most basic ingredients and traditional cuisine.

Yes you are curious and you want to visit the Farm Daio, here you will obtain all information on transport and timetables English ... And yes you want to test the Daio Wasabi not moved away from your house, you can also do so by clicking here>. <

JaponPop ^ _ ^

Photos: odysseygate , sambalanço

Today was the Olympic torch relay in Nagoya (Japan).
The event has run without too many serious incidents by deploying about 3000 police officers to ensure an event safely.

Until Naganos have come thousands of Chinese to support the event, most students living in Japan. Many carried flags of China. Have also approached a few people with Tibetan flags, so police had to be very careful to not have setbacks between these two groups.
Even with all the precautions you have pesplegado Japan, the event has finished with 5 arrested, one for throwing eggs, others jump to grab the torch and another to do strange things with sparklers. In addition there have been four minor injuries in the incident.

If I heard right, people who have run in the torch relay had 48 police around them, plus 2 special police Chinese torch guards. Normally there are many more Chinese police protecting the torch, but Japan refused to come over them.

In the first video in English can see the security measures that were set for the event and the second you can see the mishaps that have occurred.