Pension Southcol Matsumoto

... home! So after more stops at rest stops and potty breaks we pulled up in front of my apartment 22 hours after we left in the morning – beat!

The Mano family are the sweetest people I have ever met and generous beyond belief. I am so grateful that they are so kind to invite me to go on these great trips, I have seen some amazing places during my visits here!

I hope all is well with you and yours and that your Thanksgiving is wonderful!!!!


More later . . .

... numbers in Japan made no sense. After a while we found the small restaurant that had a small sheet of paper identifying itself. And small was an understatement. The restaurant had only three tables! Luckily a party was just leaving so we didn't have to wait long. We were served the cold soba in a wicker basket with accompanying spices and a mushroom and seaweed appetizer. We basically looked at the other tables to see how to eat ...

We travelled from Tokyo on the super high speed clean shiny amazing shikansen trains run by japanese rail who, outside Japan, offer the JR Railpass- a discount pass only available to tourists abroad that offers unlimited travel on the shiansen and train network for 7, 14 or 21 days- invaluable if you want to see as much as possible in a short space of time.

After arriving at our ryokan in Takayama, Erin ran through the basic ettiquette of the onsens- red curtain ...

... some money on cab fare. Hopefully I can remember to ride on the left side of the street and the other vehicles remember to do the same. I'm also hoping that the rumors of English-speaking guides are true.

Adjusting my expectations... I had thought I'd zip through the castle and get to Kyoto early. Probably not. Everything takes longer than you think.

... je suis donc en terrain de connaissance.

Il pleuvait a boire debout a Tokyo a cause du typhon qui a passe au large de la cote est. J'ai donc pris une journee de conge de mes vacances et je n'ai pas fait grand chose. Je voulais aller visiter un temple mais le temps que je traverse la rue pour aller a la station de train, j'etais deja trempee et beaucoup moins motivee ! J'ai quand meme pris le metro pour aller au ...

... at the architecture and subtle differences between houses of different functions. There were also a few buildings with people doing (or teaching) traditional arts, like wood-carving or ceramic painting, for the tourists’ enjoyment.

Back on the bus at 4.15. Guess we did have enough time. At the train station, we got our tickets back to Tokyo. Since we’d left Tokyo 1 day too early, we had to buy ...

... reminds me, last night i spend in a former ninja training vilage high in the mountains...
when i went to the next city, 3 kms sout, i met a nice family, wich sat down with me and eventually the maybe 50 year old woman invited me to stay in her house...and this more than once...after my experiences in china i said nothing binding, because they dont give a **** there about promises, concept of hounour unknown...they have the face-concept, something slightly different.
dont ...

So sorry that you havent received any news from us....from Mt.Fuji on, we didnt have any access....We stayed at the World Heritag Cultural Site in Gokayama, which was like staying at a camp.Basically, we have been in a mountainous area...the students have been writing a journal every day - One student writes about our day and at the end of the trip these pages will be copied by the leaders and a booklet will be made for ...

couldn't get to the computer last nite. only have a minute this morning.
took a train here yesterday. it's up in the "mountains", which are like big hills. it's really such a neat town. their specialty here is making sake and woodworking. i think i'll get a few real pretty bowls.
tim said yesterday on the train "show me the pictures of sedona", he was really missing her and he continues to narrate. as of ...

... great. Around midnight they decided that were going to head out and go to Koichi's other brother's bar also in the area and wanted to know if I'd join them. Sure, let's go! At this point, we made a stop at the McDonald's for some greasy food to compliment the already several drinks we had all consumed. Those chicken nuggets never tasted so amazing, let me tell you. After a short jaunt down the street we came to Koichi's brother ...