Izumiya Ryokan Ueda

... manhole covers in each of the towns we visited.

It was noon so we went to grab some lunch. There was a soba (a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It's served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth) restaurant named Nomugi that was recommended by Lonely Planet. According to the guidebook, the owner was a famous soba maker in the region. We were only given an address of the restaurant and ...

... de complementos electrónicos, cámaras, ordenadores, juegos, manga, anime, etc., etc.

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Settling in in Matsumoto. Spent about 4 1/2 hours on trains today, slow one from Nikko to Utsunomiya, a shinkansen to Omiya, another shinkansen to Nagano, then another slow train to Matsumoto. Signs of civilization at the Matsumoto station - a Starbucks!

Hoping that I can find the castle tomorrow. The ryokan has bicycles to lend, so I'm going to try and ...

... also nicht so breit... Wir trafen keine Menschenseele... die Riesenspinnen hi** (gold mit schwarz) v**anlassten mich sogar dazu gleich direkt neben den Weg Mutt**s Natur Ruf nachzugehen... - DA GEH ICH NICHT REIN; SCHAU DIR DIE SPINNENNETZE AN!!! - Wobei direkt vor mir die Hülle ein** Semi (riesenzirkade) lag ...iiiiigitt!! Von den Gelsen red ich **st gar nicht... ich glaub ja auch das die Gelsenlotion diejenigen eh** anzieht als abwehrt...
Oben ...

so i am in matsumoto, out of the last 7 nights i spend 6 on parkbenches, the last time i took public transport was 8 days ago and suddenly i have a lot to write about...
First, a night in a youthhostel in JP sets you back around 35 to 40 dollar per night...nothing included, except the privilege to check in after 4 pm and leave before nine...ah...and at 9 pm they lock you in...thanks, then i prefer to sleep in my sleepingbag in a park,more fun, mmore adventure, more cheap....

Matsumoto, Chubu, Japan asci

... in the onsen and up the verges in their group, and there were lots of cute little babies. We stayed for a while taking photos, but soon got drenched by the rain so took shelter in an onsen lodge just across a bridge on the other side of the valley. There we had lunch- by then we hadnt eaten all day as we had the money fiasco to deal with in the morning, and had rushed to get our train and bus- so we ...

... 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 ...

After Spencer sleeping all day in the TV room nursing a hangover and then me booking a hotel in the completely wrong area of Japan (although very very luxourious resulted in a 7.15am wake up call to get to Nagano) we made our way to the snow monkeys!

After getting our bus to literally the middle of nowhere, we then walked for 40 minutes along a beautiful snowy trail to where the monkey sanctuary is hidden in the snow. The path is covere din ...

... and went down the green runs (though secretly and in an ideal world, would like to try red). The runs were a series of very flat and windy trails with beautiful trees. It was the first time we saw so many snowboarders - also also mostly beginners! And I was like - wowoww! I had never seen any beginners in Japan! They fell quite frequently and I was...ummm...kind of glad that such was normal for beginners...And those snowboarding ...

We took the Shinkansen to Nagano using our rail pass and after arriving found out which bus to catch out to M-Wave, the ice skating rink used in the winter Olympics. We had never been ice skating so were willing to give it a try.

Took an old wooden floored bus out to M-Wave and walked past a sign in Japanese then paid for our ticket to the ...