Hotel New Nagano

... la compacta puerta del Mausoleo de la familia "Tokugawa".<br><br>Continuamos la ruta pasando junto a la "Tokyo Tower" finalizada en 1958, siendo la torre de acero autosoportada más alta del mundo con 333 metros, 13 más que la Torre Eiffel de Paris aunque con un 40 % menos de peso. Siguen sorprendiéndonos las gasolineras con sus surtidores colgando del techo, lo que deja mucho más espacio para ...

... 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.<br><br>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.

Sind seit gest**n in Sakudaira (ist in Nagano Nähe und scheinbar so unbedeutend, das ichs nur auf Japanisch gefunden hab... ), ab** die leute hi** haben einen riesige Einkaufsmall - JUSCO Hurra...<br>Gest**n haben wir uns wied** mit Futt** aufs Zimm** v**zogen, vorh** eben in Einkaufsmall Leck**eien eingekauft. Da gabs viel Zeugs zum Probi**en unt** and**em Maguro Sashimi... jaaa eigentlich will ich ja meinen Thunfisch v**brauch einschränken (vor allem d ...

... the citys 1500 dollar a month is a average income by now...<br>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...<br>ah, and the screming guys outside the ...

... 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 ...

... and pictures of japanese ladies. We spent the afternoon exploring the town and Mark had a chestnut icecream- the place is also reknowned for its chestnut confectionary. By this point we had spent all of the cash we had on us and were directed to 2 atms nearby, however neither would accept our cards (all visa) even though they had the visa logo on them. These were the only places to get money out in the whole town and we had no other way of getting any, arggh! 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.

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

... and tremors. We finally6 reached the Yudanaka Onsens. I couldnt wait to see the monkeys! They onsens have become famous for the maquques that are attracted here during the winter months to help keep themselves warm. It wsa a fantastic experience, there were around 100 monkeys just hanging around doing their thing, completely unfazed by all of the camera weilding tourists moving amongst them! We just moved about there for an hour watching ...

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.<br><br>Took an old wooden floored bus out to M-Wave and walked past a sign in Japanese then paid for our ticket to the ...