Pension Artliv Matsumoto

... showing artifacts and artwork in each of the floors. There were also some English signs which told us some facts about the castle. One of the interesting things were the really steep staircases. I think the steepest one was about 70 degrees! Some of the older tourists had some difficulty going up especially since the staircases were really narrow for two way traffic. I can't imagine samurai soldiers in full armor going up these ...

... Té. Merece la pena también la visión de los cerezos en flor, así como tomarse un momento de relax en una especie de merendero techado donde probamos una deliciosa bollería adquirida junto a la estación en la Boulangerie francesa "Donq", regada con curiosas y exquisitas bebidas (café espresso y lácteo con melocotón y mango).

El nublado día, lejos de incomodarnos, envolvía de una atm ...

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 ...

... angekommen, ein ziemlich v**lassenes Schloss - mit Horrorfilmpotential das ganze!!! Wied** niemand da - hauptsache ein klo gabs - klasse jetzt brauchte ich es auch nicht mehr (wobei da wär ich eh nicht reingegangen - nach d** letzten Bahnhofstoilette in d** Einöde - TIPP dafür - NIEMALS DEN BLICK NACH OBEN RICHTEN!!! - the spid**man is having me for dinn** tonight) Die Aussicht war natürlich echt nicht von schlechten Elt**n - blöd**weise ist d** akku ...

... br>lol...but i have also a lot of experiences in the other way...here examples...

hitchhiking...quite easy, even as japanese never do it...funny thing is they invite you to food or give you money...almost always... i refuse always three times, and then i take what they want to get rid of...funny behavior, theoretically it schould be possible to earn money that way.

Otherwise japan is nice, very clean, not as ultramodern as you might think, also it seems that ...

... 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 ...

... they are willing to share information, it just takes time. The ride back was filled with American and Japanese chatter, as we had all become good friends at this point. Bonding over questions and beer is never a bad thing :) We will be meeting up with a bunch of the students this thursday and most of them are coming to Boston this summer, which is really nice. We will be able to show them our home, as they have graciously shown us theirs.

... a day of asking about Japanese culture, we decided to teach them some American drinking games. Beer Pong became an instant hit, with three tables going at once. My parter, Nanami and I ended up winning every game we played. While playing, we were able to find out a lot about each other. We ended up talking until almost 5 in the morning, learning a ...

... a lot of quality goods for a 100 yen. Score! The last two days have been spent getting things for the apartment - the manager of my school picked up a new futon mattress, sheets, towels, rice cooker, and other necessities that the school is supposed to have for me. They also bought me 3000 yen worth of groceries too (about $30). All in all, it's been a fruitful couple of days. Yesterday, when I was trying to find a shower curtain, I was having trouble ...

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