Kamikochi Shimizuya Hotel Matsumoto

... the bartender spoke amazing english (he spent two years of high school in the u.s) and let us sample a plethora of sake varieties - hot/cold, dry/sweet etc.. until we had all found a favourite. This was followed, as many night henceforth would, by staggering into a local karaoke bar, and proceeding to serenade with and to the locals until around midnight when, to the tune of sweet home alabama, we sauntered home to pack our things for our train the next morning to Hiroshima.

... 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.<br><br>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.

Bonjour,<br><br>J'en suis a ma 2e journee avec le groupe. En fait, 3e mais lundi, aucune activite n'etait prevue sauf la rencontre de groupe. J'ai encore un tres bon groupe. Un peu plus vieux mais je m'y attendais. Les gens sont gentils mais etant donne que la guide n'organise pas vraiment de lunch ou de souper en groupe, je ne leur ai pas vraiment encore parle. Ma co-loc est vraiment gentille....Elise, Sophie, elle est ...

... or writing down) it&#8217;s name, apparently&#8212;not in my notes.] Sorry.<br><br>Made it back to the train/bus station and inquired about tickets to Hida-no-Sato. It was about 2.45 then and I noticed the bus was scheduled to return at 4.15. Concerned, I asked the lady at the counter if we would have enough time to see the village. &#8220;Oh yes,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Enough time.&#8221; Very reassuring. <br ...

... the citys 1500 dollar a month is a average income by now...<br>and a lot of people do stupid jobs...in a fuelstation you have a lot of people for giving you the bills, filling your tank, wiping your windscreen...same same for building sites on the road ..always people with flags who say you what you can see yourself...even in supermarketparkingspaces you have guys stopping the pedestrians like we have it for small school children...<br>ah, and the screming guys outside the ...

So sorry that you havent received any news from us....from Mt.Fuji on, we didnt have any access....We stayed at the World Heritag Cultural Site in Gokayama, which was like staying at a camp.Basically, we have been in a mountainous area...the students have been writing a journal every day - One student writes about our day and at the end of the trip these pages will be copied by the leaders and a booklet will be made for ...

couldn't get to the computer last nite. only have a minute this morning. <br>took a train here yesterday. it's up in the "mountains", which are like big hills. it's really such a neat town. their specialty here is making sake and woodworking. i think i'll get a few real pretty bowls. <br>tim said yesterday on the train "show me the pictures of sedona", he was really missing her and he continues to narrate. as of ...

A Takayama on loge dans un temple, plutot sympa ! La ville est assez touristique et on comprend pourquoi : elle regorge de temples, vieilles batisses, distilleries de sake. Il y a beaucoup d'artisanat local : bois laque, sculptures, herbes sechees... Les sobas (nouille) au sarasin sont la specialite du coin et on approuve ;-) Toujours impossible d'aller a Kamikochi, meme de ce cote. On declare donc forfait et on part vers le sud...

As the title suggests, I really shouldn't have gone to Kamikochi today. It didn't bode well from the start--I forgot my maps and guides and the driver was particularly worried about me and lack of clothes, as it was SNOWING up in Kamikochi. Which I didn't really appreciate the severity of because from Matsumoto even the tallest hills didn't have any snow on the ground and though Kamikochi is a mile above sea level, it's a valley between two parallelt taller mountain ranges ...

... isch war. Blau** Himmel und Sonnenschein und gleich viel wa**m**. Schnee habe ich auch keinen gesehen. Morgen geht es via d** Wint**olympiastadt Nagano (ohne Besuch, es gibt wenig zu sehen, im Wint** kann man Skiurlaub machen) dann mit dem Shinkansen nach Tokyo. Gruss Ralf P.S. Ukiyo-e bedeutet Bild** fu** aufregende Gefuehle. P.P.S. Und die Waage im Onsen sagte 84kilo, im Moment stagni**e ich. Kaufe zu oft in den Baeck**ein ein:-)