Hotel Ishibashi Aizuwakamatsu

... What's that line about suicide being a permanent solution to a temporary problem--in this case it was a permanent solution to an imaginary problem... But the tour guide at the top gives a spirited dance-like performance of the suicide, set to a Japanese narrative. Either way, it was rather strange because I don't quite get the significance or context. Even going to the site of the kari kiri (you gotta hand it to the Japanese to signpost every single thing), I tried to find ...

... Before we knew it dusk was approaching so we caught the train and bus back to Paul's, folded away the washing and wandered down to his local Yakitori place for a beer and light meal before catching the bus and train back to Kyoto. We managed to finally get the (very sleepy) kids in bed at 10.15 which was pretty good considering... Mike: The next day was fabulous too. Ever the gracious host, Paul did not complain once about the ...

... reconstruction. The walls and moat are original, and there's a nice garden and tea house. There's a good view from the 5th storey; however, the smog was pretty awful (they do lots of burning in the fields and it was really thick on this particular day), and the town itself had nothing going for it. Most Japanese towns and cities are quite ugly - nondescript concrete ...

... 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

... with soy sauce and sugar and grilled. Surprisingly, Chris chose the set meal with the trout and I got one with steak and fish. I warned him that I thought the trout may come whole. The food was very delicious and the trout did come whole! He did eat a good portion and then we traded steak for trout and I ate the rest! This place was a little pricey for dinner but I think it would be a great place to eat lunch if you are in Nikko. We ...

So today was a travel/show day. So not much time for sight seeing. But while picking up breakfast in Sendai before our travel call, I saw a really interesting event. It's what I think was a Breast Cancer Walk. It was a Pink Ribbon rally. But they instead of focusing on Cancer, all the signs talked about smiling and really positive messages. There were tons of people walking, and I would have joined if I didn't need to be with my group 10 mins later! It ...

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 ...

... shiho hai? - my memory of that night is somewhat vague). For your info you drink from the TSUMI (corner). We were half expecting to be drinking from the bottle of sake we bought for Mitsuo-san, when he substituted it for one twice as big. HANASAKIGANI was its name. Dave mentioned that he didn't like drinking beer, to which Mitsuo-san jumped up and grabbed beers for Mike, himself and I. He said he liked it ON ZA ROKUSU (with ice). He joked that in Aizu culture, Dave would be seen as half ...

... South Africa, Congo, but no America. He said "America, No. DAME!" We were liking this guy more and more as the day went by. Finally we had a chat with his son (the ceramics guy) so that he could practise his EIGO. No longer a snowboarder, he talked about free climbing - which sounds like a really cool thing to do in Japan (just make sure you've got gloves, not like those BAKA GAIJIN on Mt.Misen. I still have the scars). Just remembered something. We were on the train, riding ...

... a short trip through what appeared to be Hallam on a freezing cold evening. We got to the Aizu no Sata Youth Hostel, which included a liquor shop and an okonomiyaki restaurant. WOW. Talk about heaven on earth. The YH was more like a ryokan (possibily even better than Nakazono's in Kagoshima). Yamaguchi-san, the host was the best bloke. He made us feel right at home and let us use the biggest room (about 14 tatami mats) which was a Japanese style (WASHITSU) rather than the ...