Matsue

At Okayama I changed to Ltd Express Yakumo, a train which travels more slowly from the industrialised and highly populated Pacific coast of West Honshu to the other side of Japan and passes some pretty rural, mountainous scenary. I was heading today for Matsue, capital city of the Shimane Prefecture, attractively located between the Sea of Japan and the eastern shores of Shinjoko, the 7th largest lake of Japan. Both Sea- and Freshwater-Fishing play an important part in the economy of the population of about 150000 of Matsue.
Of course the sun was shining when I arrived - what a welcome:
During the progress of planning I had received some very helpful and friendly mails . So the young ladies of the International Tourist Office were looking out for me as was Hideki Ogawa, a football coach with FC Shimane who had been in Germany 14 years ago. The attention I received was great and if you know that they get about 400 calls a day from foreign tourist supposedly most of them from some other countries in Asia,this tells you how devoted the young ladies are. I made a point of popping in whenever I was near Matsue station.