is open from 10am-5pm (longer during the Gujo Odori period) and closed on Wednesday. Both places are free to enter.

Sample Village Iwasaki (サンプルビレッジ いわさき) is further out of town close to Gujo Station. This is a large workshop where visitors can watch food samples being made and make their own for a fee. Food replicas are also on display and for sale. Sample Village Iwasaki is open from 9am-4pm and closed on Tuesday.

Iwasaki Mokei was founded in 1932 and is Japan's first and foremost sample maker with production centers around the country. Iwasaki Mokei was begun by Takizo Iwasaki (1895-1965), a native of Gujo Hachiman, who opened his first workshop in Osaka.

Samples became popular in the immediate post-war period when many thousands of foreign troops were stationed infast WiFi, flat-screen TVs and a fridge with complimentary green tea. There's a handy convenience store across the road. Car parking is an extra 1,000 yen a night.

The Toyama tram runs just outside the hotel with connections to Toyama Station and from the hotel it is a fairly short walk to Hie Shrine and the Toyama Glass Art Museum. Room rates are about 70 US dollars a night. For something a little different, the Kiyota Ryokan is just on the opposite side of the street.

Monday, December 21, 2015

The Rakugeikan Medical Museum was formerly the main hospital in Gujo Hachiman and opened as such in 1904. Now it is a museum with displays of rather gruesome medical instruments, an old X-ray machine, beds, doctors' white coats, anatomical books and