村上　Day trip to Murakami

Murakami is a traditional samurai town in the northern part of Niigata prefecture.

Many of the traditional samurai houses have been restored and are still being lived in. Makes you feel like you've been transported back in time to the samurai period.

There is the occasional modern architecture that sticks out like a sore thumb. They seem to favour the stilted look.

The town happened to be holding a traditional folding screens exhibition. These were the town people's personal collections on display at their own homes or shops. They would leave their doors open for visitors to freely walk in to look at the exhibits. Most of the owners are really friendly and will start telling you about the exhibits. I thought the exhibition was really cool!

This is actually part of a traditional shop

This friendly old lady said that the folding screen behind her was about 300 years old (and lots of other information which I'm sure were extremely relevant)

A run-down old house

with lots of exquisite screens on display

羽黒神社　Haguro jinja, perched on top of 3 steep flights of steps, halfway up the mountain

Then, I took a short hike up お城山 Oshiroyama to the ruins of the Murakami Castle.
From the top, you get a great view of Murakami town and the Japan Sea.

At the ruins, this 86-year-old retired schoolteacher started chatting to me. He climbs the mountain everyday for exercise.

On the way down, I turn a corner and did a double-take when I saw a line of samurai hiking up the mountain! For a moment, I really thought that I entered some time warp. Turns out they're a group of men from Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture, who like to climb mountains wearing samurai garb. The group leader even gave me a laminated photo when I whipped out my camera to take a picture of them!

By sheer luck, I stumbled upon a traditional archery display in some part of the town.

Murakami is known for salmon.

Salmon Park

For my Japanophile uncle who's always on the lookout for properties on sale. This brand-new house cost 198,000,000 yen (approx S$2,682,900). 60-year leasehold.