Hotel Togakushi Nagano

... 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 ...

Nagano... ici Nagano. Apres la moiteur du sud, c'est un vent frais qui nous accueille dans cette ville de l'est des Alpes Japonaises. A Nagano il y a le temple Zenko-ji et les jeux olympiques d'il y a 11 ans, mais pas grand chose d'autre. Le temple renferme une icone de Bouddha vieille de plus de 1500 ans, mais personne ne l'aurait vue depuis plus de 1000 ...

... 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 ...

... and snow, but you have ropes either side to help you up onto the trail and also along the path. There is a sudden drop to one side which is covered in trees with lots of things to spot along the way. Naturally I didn't spot anything but i'm sure they're there!!

The monkeys come down into the pool every 2 hours or so when fed and are absolutely hilarious to watch. The actual area stinks of ammonia and you have to be careful not to tred in poo ...

... Osaka (cos we could). I love the Shinkansen (bullet train). I'm never catching another train ever again. Fast, comfy, spacious, clean, on time. THE model public transport system. Shinkansen or bust. Kyoto is grouse. It has a multitude of historical sites (and vending machines and Japanese food places). We went and saw the best temple, best shrine, best palace and the Ninja house (my secret residence. Don't be fooled by Kel when she says she's a ninja. I ...

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.

Parie en randonnee tres top ce matin car il n'y a qu'un seul train qui vas vers la station ou la randonnee commence. une fois arriver a la montagne, on doit prendre un gondole et 2 chair lift pour se rendre au point de depart du sentier. De la je me suis rendu au sommet a 2700m en 2 heures puis je suis revenue en 1heure et demi. Le temps de revenir a la gare et faire un peu d'epicerie, il est deja 17h00.

Aujoud'hui, il fait tres beau, pas trop chaud,18 celcius. Je suis partie en randonnee au mont Goryu, la base de la montagne est a 5 min a pied de l'auberge. C'est 6.2 km pour se rendre au sommet de 2007m d'altitude. Apres avoir marcher mes 12.4 km, je suis arriver en bas, ou il y a une piscine pour l'entrainement de saut en ski.

... about 1 km up a gentle slope toward the top of the town. At the entrance (Niomon) of the complex, I saw many other tourists and pilgrims (indeed this is the "mecca" for Buddhists in Japan) looking around and snapping pictures. I proceeded into the grounds and saw many "temple" looking buildings. Not really sure which was Zenkoji, I decided to just follow the crowds. Along the path leading to the temple, there were many shops with their ...

... to come by to take us back into town. Eventually one arrived and we walked up to the Zenkoji Temple past a street full of temple residences.

We wandered around the temple complex and gardens and even saw someone ringling the large bell using a wooden log before walking back down to the train station and catching the train back to Tokyo.