Matsumoto Wellton Hotel

TOKYO , JAPON

Amanece chispeando, cogemos nuestro miniparaguas y vamos caminando a la zona sur del parque de Ueno (entre las estaciones de Ueno y Ueno-Okachimachi) donde bajo las v�as del tren se encuentra el "Mercado de Ameyoko". Su nombre deriva de "Ameya Yoko" que significa el callej�n de los vendedores de dulces, con motivo de las manzanas dulces cubiertas de jarabe de az�car que se vend�a all ...

Settling in in Matsumoto. Spent about 4 1/2 hours on trains today, slow one from Nikko to Utsunomiya, a shinkansen to Omiya, another shinkansen to Nagano, then another slow train to Matsumoto. Signs of civilization at the Matsumoto station - a Starbucks!

Hoping that I can find the castle tomorrow. The ryokan has bicycles to lend, so I'm going to try and ...

... Natto ohne Reis nur pur mit etwas Senf und Sojasauce nicht schmeckt. Wenig Natto mit viel Reis - okay. Viel Natto ohne Reis - no go. das wusst ich eigentlich schon seit dem letzten besuch in Japan...ab** man kanns ja nochmal v**suchen, weils doch so gesund ist.
Jetzt haben wir nochmal eine Nacht dazugebucht und wollen morgen etwas ins gebirgig**e Landesinn**e mit den Zug, mal sehen ob wir den B�ren doch noch zu gesicht bekommen... (hoffenlich nicht)

... reminds me, last night i spend in a former ninja training vilage high in the mountains...
when i went to the next city, 3 kms sout, i met a nice family, wich sat down with me and eventually the maybe 50 year old woman invited me to stay in her house...and this more than once...after my experiences in china i said nothing binding, because they dont give a **** there about promises, concept of hounour unknown...they have the face-concept, something slightly different.
dont ...

... walked the rest of the way to the park, through a forest. En route we took the wrong turning and ended up walking up a path marked with a sign warning us of poisonous snakes, whoopsy! When we finally got there it was wonderful. The monkeys are wild but you could get up really close to take pictures. Mark went so close I thought they were going to attack him! They were great to watch, as they frolicked ...

... The Japanese students asked us questions, and we asked the Japanese students questions. They were all anonymous, which was nice. The questions ranged from what is your favorite foods to do you think we speak english well, to "would you ever date a Japanese person?" It was great to see how curious our new friends had become and it was amazing to realize how much we don't really know about each others cultures. Although the Japanese are ...

Day two of the seminar included presentations by all the American students on a policy book and another book called Japan: Unbound by John Nathan. My presentations focused on Fiscal Policy comparing Japan and America and Breakdown in the Classroom, a focus on Education. After the presentations, we broke into smaller groups with some of the Japanese ...

... found shelter, it was in an overpriced restaurant for more soba, which I'm sick of by now. The saddest thing is that I know that this place has some really beautiful views--not only in postcard, but there's a section where you're walking on planks over a bog that is running between a forest of trees, and it's eerie and it's totally unique. Plus, occasionally, the snow open up and you see some shadows of mountains all around you. But four hours of dealing with hellish ...

A long train ride today from Aizu and several transfers takes me to Matsumoto, only to arrive in really bad weather. Actually I arrived in really bad weather at Nagano by bullet train--I wonder if the only reason there's a bullet train was the 1998 Olympics. But Nagano did have a highlight and that was in the station was a stand for Oyaki, these bao-like buns steamed and stuffed with vegetables like pumpkin, eggplant, Chinese chives, fern (warabi ...

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