I just realized that I haven’t actually said much about what this work trip is about and where we’ve been. For posterity sake, as always, here’s what the 14 day trip entails:
Day 01 to Day 04: Arriving via red-eye flight from Singapore to Fukuoka. Business visits in the city, and also to the nearby city of Kumamoto.
Day 04 to Day 10: Relocation from Fukuoka to Matsue via Shinkansen to Okayama, then Limited Express train to Matsue. In Matsue itself, to attend a four day long conference.
Day 10 to Day 14: Relocation from Matsue via Limited Express Train to Okayama, then Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka Station, then finally to Osaka itself for business visits inside Osaka and Nara.
There’s been a few opportunities to explore the vicinity on my own this trip, but a couple of the local attractions are included in the Matsue segment itself. On Day 07, we had a half-day excursion to Matsue Castle. The city itself is pretty sedate though thankfully not quite as lifeless as Tokayama, the city where I attended the 2019 instance of this conference. The train station itself has a couple of restaurants, a Starbucks where I spent a few evenings writing blog posts, a multi-story shopping mall beside the train station. For more dining and also some further shopping options, there is also an Aeon shopping mall about 8 minutes walk away from the station.
View of Matsue Station from the hotel I’ve been staying in: the Matsue Excel Hotel Tokyu. The hotel is roughly opposite the train station and also conference venue, and there’s also a car rental company beside it too.The Matsue Terrsa, a building for business conferences. The about six floor building has a medium sized auditorium that can be partitioned into smaller rooms, and several other meeting rooms of varying sizes: which became the session rooms for paper presentations.An interesting object that hangs from the ceiling. At selected hours, like a clockwork tower, figurines emerge and pretend play instruments.The excursion included a roughly 50 minute boat ride that takes visitors around the moat and canal system surrounding the castle. The boat ride was alright, but if having been to similar rides in Kurashiki and also Yanagawa, this one felt pretty unsighting. The vantage points from the boat weren’t really interesting: and for those among us who’re purists, do note that the boat is powered by motor, not traditional hand row-ed.Matsue Castle, completed in 1611, and one of the twelve remaining original castles still left in Japan. The castle is pretty small, but against the compound still features a unique look. The excursion included admission into the castle tower itself, but I was contend to just explore the surroundings from the outside. Once you’ve seen Himeji Castle, nothing else compares!The castle and compound saw some visitors the Wednesday afternoon we visited, and they were invariably all locals. Nothing like the throngs of international and noisy tourists that I saw in Osaka and Himeji castles.Route map taken by the sightseeing boat.
