City Garden Hotel Shinanoji Nagano

... At one of the stairs, one of the castle staff was yelling out something in Japanese. I proceeded up the stairs and then "Owwwww!" I hit my head on one of the support beams. I guess the guy was saying watch your head! At the top of the castles, there were some really nice views of the city. On the way down, we went on the moon deck. Apparently Matsumoto is only one of two Japanese castles with a moon deck. Must be really nice at ...

... y si no van dormidos (que es lo más probable) se dedican a escuchar música, ver videos o no se que más millones de cosas pueden hacer con ellos...

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 ...

... the citys 1500 dollar a month is a average income by now...
and a lot of people do stupid jobs...in a fuelstation you have a lot of people for giving you the bills, filling your tank, wiping your windscreen...same same for building sites on the road ..always people with flags who say you what you can see yourself...even in supermarketparkingspaces you have guys stopping the pedestrians like we have it for small school children...
ah, and the screming guys outside the ...

... famished. After hot soba noodle broth we were still a bit chilled from the rain and so decided to experience the onsen for ourselves (not the same one the monkeys come in, but they sit nearby). I was a bit unsure about this as you have to go in, in the nuddy!!!! how embarrassing!!! but we whipped our towels off and went for it and thank god there was noone else there. We went in the outside onsen, as the ...

For our third day of the rail pass, we zoomed off to Obuse, near the Japanese alps, north west of Tokyo. This involved first getting the bullet train to Nagano, then getting a local train to Obuse, the smallest town in that area. It was a very attractive little place, with pretty houses and well kept flowerbeds. So, you might be wondering why we came here, well, this is where the artist Hokosai painted in his final years, and there is a museum here showcasing some of his work ...

... ours - guess pregnant women and women with young children CAN travel and see these amazing places!

We rushed back to catch the bus back to the train station where we walked around the town of Nagano for a few hours. It's well worth a look to see one of the oldest shrines in Japan - apparently there is an underground room where you can walk underneath the shrine and discover the secrets of life - but apparently this secret can only be ...

... Expos que j<ai connu avec leur Youppi... Mais quand meme,�@10 manches c<est assez! Souper dans un resto Jamaicain. Pas qu<on s<ennuie deja des Caraibes mais le changement, ca fait du bien! Premiere nuit de deux dans un Ryokan (chambre style-japonais ou on dort sur un mini-futon installe directement sur le tatami avec une oreiller qui fait davantage penser a une poche de 2kg de Uncle Bens ...

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 ...