Aizu Fresh Resort Aizuwakamatsu

... spent a good 15 minutes sitting outside a Pachinko parlor (where a high pitched girl's voice entreating customers almost drove me insane)--both maps from the office show the same city but are printed in two different orientations (portrait vs. landscape) and I had so much time trying to get them squared up. But I got a good start at a more 'traditional' restaurant, which appropriately doubles as an omiyage (souvenir) shop. The specialty here is dengaku, which are skewered ...

Monday 28th April Alison: On Monday we headed up into the hills above Kyoto to Kurama for our experience of a traditional Ryokan. In order to get there we had to catch the JR train one station to connect with the Keihan train company's train which connected us with the Eizan train company's train which took us up to Kurama - all these different train companies in one city is amazing, and of course each one has separate ticketing ...

We did a longer road trip on Sunday, 10/7. We went north up the pacific coast to the end of the Joban expressway and then west, about ½ way across into the mountainous interior on the Ban-Etsu expressway. This is fairly far north, and very few non-Japanese tourists make it up here. Actually, it's still quite a ways north to the tip of Honshu (the main island of Japan), but much ...

... the parents lounging around the onsen (hot spring) just taking it all in and the kids running havoc it is v funny. On the way out I saw two young monkies fighting, I had to take a video of a monkey fight...... but as I got a little bit closer one of the monkies jumped on me and turned the camera off ........ I couldn't stop laughing. And then the snow started ....... we headed for Tokyo

Today we arose around 9 to go to the historic Word Heritage site of Nikko, about 2 hours north of Tokyo. We bought the World Heritage Pass, which I would recommend. For about $35 per person, you get round trip train tickets from Asakusa station in Tokyo, entrance to three Temples in Nikko, and limited use of the Nikko bus system. We didn't get up until about 8:30 so by the time we got up to Asakusa we wouldn't get to Nikko until 2:30. The ...

... Bowling Alley/Arcade!!!! I knew what we would be doing after the show!! We taxied to the theater, and I regaled our Stage Manager with one of my funny phrases in my book... It goes something like this: he-ru-met-to wa hi-tsu-yo des ka?? It asks, "Do I need a Helmet??" Used in the right context... VERY funny. Well, ask and you shall receive. Within 5 minutes of having said that, I was handed an awesome red plastic HERUMETO (Helmet). Well, you ...

So we get to one of our first relaxing places from the outside bandai-atami doesnt look that nice, probably due to its heyday being 15 years ago! The hotel we stayed at was called Kirakuya Inn not much from the outside but once inside it was really nice, it has 2 public onsens for men and women with many different baths and a sauna, and two private baths on the top floor observing the mountains surounding bandai. It was really nice, Michelle`s bag broke (also her hair drier blew up, we ...

... how he managed to get a 2 second part, drinking beer in a YEBISU BEER commercial. It must have been pretty funny for the town to see their local school headmaster on a beer CM. Mike was ******* like a racehorse all night since he was sitting next to Mutsuo-san who kept eagerly refilling both Mike's beer and sake cups. They kept calling Mike a TSUU (sake specialist). We gave the Takahatas the remainder of the souvenirs from Australia - a kangaroo leather money purse and a kangaroo ...

This was the day we checked out Kitakata, a city famous for its 120 ramen shops and 200 odd traditional style warehouses. On another topic, I've gotta say the Japanese drivers are the most considerate I've come across (UPDATE: outside Tokyo that is). Not one car can be heard honking its horn; and where else in the world can you find drivers who are backing out of their driveways, but go back in to let pedestrians walk by first. Back home they make you wait (pedestrians being at ...

... sake (or the ones you can buy at a vending machine or convenience store) are either watered down or have synthetic alcohols added. To prove his point, Yamaguchi-san gave us some of the "normal" sake (perhaps a notch above the ONE CUP SAKE that Mike had frequently consumed on long train journeys) and it tasted **** after the Jun Mai Shu. Then he gave us a huge bottle of NIGORI ZAKE, the same sake as the Jun Mai Shu except it was brewed the traditional way and hadn't been ...