Hotel Sunroute Shiga-Kogen Yamanouchi-machi

... If you dont already know, Hokosai painted the many scenes of mount fuji including the famous Wave picture you will all have seen. So it was quite a busy little place, with quite a few tour buses around. After checking in to the hostel we walked down the road to the museum and were inundated with free samples of various japanese foods, some nice some so very not. The exhibition was great, we were both very impressed by his work which included beautiful landscapes, scenes on ...

... 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 ...

Busy day today because all my sightseeing has been put off by the weather. But today is sunny, sunny and sunny. Started way early, and was actually the 2nd tourist inside Matsumoto castle today. The castle is very different than Himeji (which looks more majestic but it's apples v. oranges here); not only in color but it's set up as a completely wartime castle. While Himeji is peacefully situated on park land and had living quarters and extra room to give away ...

... you can get really close to the monkeys and watching the mums with the baby monkeys is lovely. Unfortunately the monkeys only come down when they are fed so luckily we timed it perfectly and managed to get some brilliant shots. But wait around if there aren't any there once you get there they will soon turn up when the keeps start throwing the pellets on the ground.

We also met an Australian family with a 8 month old baby on a similar trip ...

... the biggest ninja there is. She's still going through Ninja pre pre school. I'm so Ninja, I could kill you with a thought, should I be so inclined. I could probably also kill you with my breath after eating Japanese for 10 days). Jobs done. Oh, and we saw a Geisha. Geisha = chick dolled up with pure white mascara who spends time with bored rich Japanese blokes in a clean, no touching, let me get a drink for you and light your cigar kinda way. Think 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.

... your health. Another involved rubbing a sacred statue on the body parts that ail you, said to heal sickness. Outside the temple are areas for hanging wooden plaques. You write a wish on the plaque, or a prayer you would like to have granted and then hang it up. Inside the temple, there was a queue of people waiting for their chance to find the key to salvation! Needless to say we joined the queue, and found ourselves walking blindly through a ...

... on en a vu) est ultra-propre *Si t<as pas de place chez-toi pour avoir un chat, tu peux aller en flatter un dans des endroits specialises *Les villes sont entrecoupees de petites rizieres (et entres quelques maison egalement) *Bicyclettes sont tres utilisees... mais personne ne porte de casque (ils ecrivent des messages sur leur cellulaire, fument, tiennent un parapluie, mais pas de casque) *Les bieres se ...

... ve encountered. The place looked basically like a Japanese version of IHOP. There was a conveyor belt running past every table, with some nice-looking, and some scary-looking sushi on it. Just grab whatever strikes your fancy off the belt. You make your own tea with hot water that comes from a faucet on the table. If you want a specific food, just push the corresponding button on the computer screen at your table, and a little "bullet train" will ...

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 ...