Kokusai 21 Nagano

... 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 ...

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 ...

... dowry, Matsumoto castle is strictly defense minded--the lord doesn't live in the castle and every room has vantage points, stone drops and arrow and musket holes. Surprisingly, guns came to Japan in the 1600s, way earlier than I thought. Spent a couple of pleasant hours wandering the attached park and Matsumoto city museum and climbing the steep (according to the plaques somewhere between 45 and 62 degrees) stairs. But soon, Nagano was calling, as I had ...

... ours - guess pregnant women and women with young children CAN travel and see these amazing places!<br><br>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 ...

... a million kilos thanks to the delicious Japanese curries, fried chicken, upside down pizza (okonomiyaki?) and sushi, which I ate at every opportunity - a good solid 5 - 6 meals a day :) First off we spent 5 days skiing, which is 2 days more than my ass could handle, thanks to the kind intervention (and running over by) another Aussie boarder. There are too many Aussies overseas. I now know how to grovel in pain - something the bouncers at the Chalk didn't ...

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.

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.<br><br>Took an old wooden floored bus out to M-Wave and walked past a sign in Japanese then paid for our ticket to the ...

During our two-week winter break, we decided to forego returning to Canada in favour of a vacation with some of our friends here. So we booked a 4-day ski trip to Shiga Kogen in Nagano prefecture, the biggest ski resort in the country and the main site for the downhill ski events at the 1998 Olympics ...