My friend and I went down to visit Odawara Castle. I have been to a surprising number of castle throughout Japan but still have not been to some of the closer ones to me. The castle was fought over many times, and has had different lords including Tokugawa Ieyasu. The surrounding area is also nice with many cafes and old fashioned shops selling the famous products of the area, including kamaboko, himono, and umeboshi.

We stopped into one old umeboshi store with a nice lady explaining that umeboshi can be stored for 100 years without refrigeration and still be edible. She then pulled out a jar of 70 year old umeboshi. Instead of the red color I am used to seeing these were black. She then stuck her hand in the jar, pulled one out and gave it to me to eat. Although a bit salty, the flavor was very nice and I imagined what this plum looked like as it was picked and put into a jar way back during WWII.