Hotel Silver Horn Myoko

... togeth 1000yen (7 quid) for dinner- 2 bowls of noodles, and then went to sleep broke and dreading that we would be stuck there forever. In the morning we arose early to try and get money but no-one could speak any english, nightmare! In the end there was one man from the bank who came and showed us where there was a 3rd atm, that we were unaware of, and sure enough it ejected those lovely yen notes for us :). We were very relieved, and went back to get our bags then left!

... Cependant une copie peut etre admiree en avril-mai tous les 7 ans. Bingo pour nous, c'est en 2009 que ca se passe. Le site est bien sur tres visite, meme en dehors de cette periode. Il est possible de descendre sous l'autel et suivre un couloir dans le noir complet pour pouvoir toucher la poignee de la porte derriere laquelle est censee se trouver la ...

... trains to deal with today. Nagano is much nicer than I thought it would be--the main street is pleasantly uphill and decorated with handing flowers and contemporary buildings. The main site is the major Zen temple Zenkoji. The walk up is pretty devoid of people, but the actual shrine grounds are totally packed, way more than I expected. Turns out that this is one of the years (every 7) that the enshrined Buddha is connected to a wooden post placed in the ...

... from 9-5pm and we naturally got there too late.

I love bullet trains in Japan. We got from Nagano back to Tokyo in the space of an hour and a half and summing up enough energy we found our ludicrously small hostel with a kitchen meant for 40 guests consisting of two hobs and a hot plate and crawled into bed exhausted!


Travelling Bumps
Personalised travel advice for pregnant women
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... photo. fluckenshitnfluck*******poo. Next stop... Hiroshima. Having come all this way, I thought I'd take a few snaps of the Hiroshima dome. However, I hadn't reckoned with the 20 megatons of scaffolding it was under. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Why are the best bits ALWAYS under (re)construction whenever I'm in country? So I contented myself with further studies into the fattening effects of 17 servings of Japanese food per day washed down with Japanese beer ...

I am going to keep the chat to a minimum here and let the (many) photos do the talking. I went to Nagano to see the "Snow Monkeys". They were awesome. After a short 2km hike through snowy forested mountains, suddenly there were monkeys running across the path - and they literally came within an inch of my feet! Well worth the visit.

... unlike in NZ where you jump in in your bikini, you visit a Japanese Onsen naked, and there is a washing routine that must be observed. You first sit on a stool in a public bath area and use a shower to scrub your body and hair. You then get into the onsen, careful not to get your hair in the water, or your washcloth. Afterwards you wash again at the shower area. it was fantastic! So realxing and chilled out, I could definitely get used to it!

... of travel?!). Arrival at our super-picturesque Ryokan! The building is between the temple and the temple gates and has a buddha outside that people stop to pray to...we are spoiling ourselves to finish our stay in Japan! Shanghai on Thursday for two weeks in China. Please note that some of this was translated using Babelfish - I haven`t lost the ability to write proper English, I:m just on a timer in an underground internet cafe!

... it to your table. We had mackerel, tuna, squid, crab, and shrimp (all raw), and tempura and miso soup. It was a culinary adventure! Then, back to the hotel for the evening, which is very nice, with a great view of a bustling city square, with a river and hills beyond. Our room has a computer in it, so I was able to check my e-mail, to find out that my sister, Cris, had her baby yesterday--little Autumn Hope. And she is adorable... I can't wait to meet her!

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 ...