Kaze no Yasuyado Nagano

... and pictures of japanese ladies. We spent the afternoon exploring the town and Mark had a chestnut icecream- the place is also reknowned for its chestnut confectionary. By this point we had spent all of the cash we had on us and were directed to 2 atms nearby, however neither would accept our cards (all visa) even though they had the visa logo on them. These were the only places to get money out in the whole town and we had no other way of getting any, arggh! So we ...

Nagano... ici Nagano. Apres la moiteur du sud, c'est un vent frais qui nous accueille dans cette ville de l'est des Alpes Japonaises. A Nagano il y a le temple Zenko-ji et les jeux olympiques d'il y a 11 ans, mais pas grand chose d'autre. Le temple renferme une icone de Bouddha vieille de plus de 1500 ans, mais personne ne l'aurait vue depuis plus de 1000 ...

... which lies about 30 minutes train ride west of central, Imperial palace Tokyo, thigns got really, really stressful. Tons of people, which was fine except I had my massive suitcase and for whatever reason, there's a lack of elevators. And escalators sometimes only reach half way up a floor so you have to drag your bag up the remaining flights of stairs. All this because I needed to buy a Keio bus ticket to get to Fuji later. But Shinjuku station has 2 ...

... and snow, but you have ropes either side to help you up onto the trail and also along the path. There is a sudden drop to one side which is covered in trees with lots of things to spot along the way. Naturally I didn't spot anything but i'm sure they're there!!

The monkeys come down into the pool every 2 hours or so when fed and are absolutely hilarious to watch. The actual area stinks of ammonia and you have to be careful not to tred in poo ...

... to teach me on the Australia Day weekend. Otherwise the ski slopes are good. I rate them Kiwi for snow cover, Australian for run length, Kiddy day care centre for difficulty, and Tasmanian for under crowding. Degree of difficulty is multiplied by a factor of 2.8 by the propensity for Japanese boarders to spend most of their time on the hill sitting on their bum chatting to each other - usually in the skinny / turn / track section. You soon learn to ...

I am going to keep the chat to a minimum here and let the (many) photos do the talking. I went to Nagano to see the "Snow Monkeys". They were awesome. After a short 2km hike through snowy forested mountains, suddenly there were monkeys running across the path - and they literally came within an inch of my feet! Well worth the visit.

Parie en randonnee tres top ce matin car il n'y a qu'un seul train qui vas vers la station ou la randonnee commence. une fois arriver a la montagne, on doit prendre un gondole et 2 chair lift pour se rendre au point de depart du sentier. De la je me suis rendu au sommet a 2700m en 2 heures puis je suis revenue en 1heure et demi. Le temps de revenir a la gare et faire un peu d'epicerie, il est deja 17h00.

Aujoud'hui, il fait tres beau, pas trop chaud,18 celcius. Je suis partie en randonnee au mont Goryu, la base de la montagne est a 5 min a pied de l'auberge. C'est 6.2 km pour se rendre au sommet de 2007m d'altitude. Apres avoir marcher mes 12.4 km, je suis arriver en bas, ou il y a une piscine pour l'entrainement de saut en ski.

... to come by to take us back into town. Eventually one arrived and we walked up to the Zenkoji Temple past a street full of temple residences.

We wandered around the temple complex and gardens and even saw someone ringling the large bell using a wooden log before walking back down to the train station and catching the train back to Tokyo.

... only greenish beige tatami matting. Behind a sliding door you'll find a cupboard with everything you need, mattress, duvet, little rice seed pillow. And we complained as children if we had to make our bed! Here they really have to assemble the whole affair! We then ventured local and I started to worry a bit when a guy in the train who lived in California, but who came to visit his family in the region, was startled when hearing of our destination. Not one 'gaijin ...