Hotel Osakaya Aizuwakamatsu

... reception spaces for people of different peerage (lords, peers and servants). In terms of the furniture, I found the rooms a bit empty, but I wonder if that's the Japanese way. I just assumed that wealth begat tons of embellishment and material goods (i.e Versailles). But here, it was just good quality tatami and some preobably really expensive singular furniture pieces (i.e desk, chest of drawers). An oddity of the place has to be the manniquins used to depict every day ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

Now we decided to head 3 hours east to visit the apline snow monkies of the japanaese alps. Probably not the most constructive use of our time but when I heard that the young monkies dive bomb their parents in a natural hot spring I was sold. We got there and it was so true, the monkies are helarious and complete unafraid of humans, they don't really care that you are there. You should ...

... center near the train station and had coffee/tea in an adorable shop with a nice view of the town. We walked back, stopping in some shops, and then changed for dinner. We decided to eat in the highly recommended dining room of the Kanaya hotel. The room was beautiful, Victorian style with large wood pillars and ornate mantles. It was very well lit. The food was French but their famous dish is the rainbow trout caught in the nearby river ...

... like a lot of fun, mostly because people were really taking to the positive messages. Just goes to show, despite all of our cultural differences, we are all just people learning how to cope with issues like cancer. It was a pretty quick train ride to the next city, Fukushima. Because it was so quick we had 1 hour before we needed to get the theater. I went on a search for a computer store, didn't find it, but I did find something else... a GIANT 6 ...

... got her another yet!)so we wanted to get one, the owner offered to drive us to get a new one which was really nice after we got the bag he then took us out for ramen his treat. the food at the hotel was great but even tho they had an english menu the waiter made a mistake on the second night and we had curry and rice two days in a row. we basically spent two days relaxing, we had a walk and saw a shrine, i got to know a japanese dentist in the outside bath (and no there was no gay love).

The night before (after all the nigorizake), I fell asleep before any of the others (I can always count on alcohol as a sedative - a trait from dad's side of the family). My slumber was only slightly interrupted when I found a suspicious white splodge on my face (luckily it was just shaving cream). Unfortunately for Mike, the perpetrator, it didn't have the desired effect. In my intoxicated state I just said "Ahh, now my skin's all soft and silky" and promptly went back to sleep. After ...

... felt a little ill the next morning - nevermind that drinking that much sake would do the same anyway. Yamaguchi-san tried to convey the message that dinners such as the one we'd shared with his friends were a rare occurance, and that we were very lucky. We asked him about the gaijin that had stayed at his place. He said that he got about 400 a year. It was quiet this time of year, as there was no festival (we found out the hard way). He had had visitors from Germany, France ...

... 13. That train arrived at Tokyo at 13:13. We left Tokyo at 13:36, once again in carriage 13 and row 13. Luckily 13 isn't a superstitious number in Japan, otherwise I might have thought someone trying to jinx our trip. When we got to Shiokawa station, a stop just out from Aizu Wakamatsu and near the YH, it was pitch black. Bloody cold too. The school kids there were a bit try-hard with their caps on sideways, 80s-esque hairdos and checkered grandpa pants (haha). The hostel ...