Hotel Route Inn Daini Nagano

... Jinja which was a quaint shrine with lots of pigeons. There were pigeons everywhere and they weren't afraid to get near people. Probably b/c people were feeding them bread crumbs. It was funny when all the pigeons suddenly took off at the same time and everyone ducked for cover. We also saw some little girls dressed up in traditional garb. There were some nice trees with colorful leaves too.

We finally made our way to ...

... por algo...No sé como será el nivel 6 a 10, pero te puedo decir que el 1 me generó una serie de sensaciones gustativas ligeramente cercanas al límite de la pérdida total y definitiva del sentido del gusto!!!! Creo que estaba rico pero no lo recuerdo bien porque se me encharcó el cerebro al beber tanto líquido intentando paliar los efectos currynales en mi boca...

Del Templo de ...

... 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.

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.

... angekommen, ein ziemlich v**lassenes Schloss - mit Horrorfilmpotential das ganze!!! Wied** niemand da - hauptsache ein klo gabs - klasse jetzt brauchte ich es auch nicht mehr (wobei da wär ich eh nicht reingegangen - nach d** letzten Bahnhofstoilette in d** Einöde - TIPP dafür - NIEMALS DEN BLICK NACH OBEN RICHTEN!!! - the spid**man is having me for dinn** tonight) Die Aussicht war natürlich echt nicht von schlechten Elt**n - blöd**weise ist d** akku ...

... face, give face, dont loose face... says nowhere dont break promises or dont lie...
Anyway, after she repeated her invitation 3 times i said ok, they paid my beer, i paid my food.
NIce...what annoyed me was that she was inching closer and closer to me sexual harassment from a over 50 years old japanese lady?
whowww....
She then wanted to sing karaoke, so up we went, after some time i got a bill over 1700 yen, 17 dollar, went down and off she went without even saiing ...

... walked the rest of the way to the park, through a forest. En route we took the wrong turning and ended up walking up a path marked with a sign warning us of poisonous snakes, whoopsy! When we finally got there it was wonderful. The monkeys are wild but you could get up really close to take pictures. Mark went so close I thought they were going to attack him! They were great to watch, as they frolicked ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... and climbing stuff quite happily, and swimming in the onsen (hot springs bath). It was a great little park. But I`m a bit annoyed that we spent longer getting there (and more money) than we actually spent at the park. At least we had a very tasty lunch of cold soba noodles and tempura - yum yum yum. Last night was great though. The woman that runs the youth hostel we`re staying at (the one with the 9pm curfew), took us out to a natural onsen (after curfew!) and it was very nice. I ...

... and ice-skating rink. We went through the rather disappointing museum and through to the ice skating rink to find the lights off and half the ice melted. It was then that we realised that the sign out the front in Japanese probably said the rink was closed due to maintenance.

We left M-Wave, had lunch and then had to wait ages for another ...