Nakamachi Fuji Grand Hotel Aizuwakamatsu

... reception spaces for people of different peerage (lords, peers and servants). In terms of the furniture, I found the rooms a bit empty, but I wonder if that's the Japanese way. I just assumed that wealth begat tons of embellishment and material goods (i.e Versailles). But here, it was just good quality tatami and some preobably really expensive singular furniture pieces (i.e desk, chest of drawers). An oddity of the place has to be the manniquins used to depict every day ...

... in our kimonos... though probably prettier than without! Tuesday 29th April Alison: On Tuesday we got up fairly early in order to have an outside spa before breakfast and then head off to Paul's place near Iberaki. I have to admit my old bones found the sleeping on the futons with rice pillows very uncomfortable, but the kids and Michael slept like babies so that was lucky. I certainly enjoyed the early morning spa though ...

... the northern peninsula is pretty remote. We looked into driving or taking a train to Hokkaido (there's a v-e-r-y long tunnel that connects Honshu and Hokkaido), but that is one LONG trip! It will have to wait 'til next time, and we'll fly. The expressways allowed us to make good time, and we got there in about 3 hours. However, as I've stated before, they're expensive; we spent ...

... the parents lounging around the onsen (hot spring) just taking it all in and the kids running havoc it is v funny. On the way out I saw two young monkies fighting, I had to take a video of a monkey fight...... but as I got a little bit closer one of the monkies jumped on me and turned the camera off ........ I couldn't stop laughing. And then the snow started ....... we headed for Tokyo

... are far away behind a screen. Rinno-ji and the five story pagoda were very ornate and beautiful. My favorite part was actually not the Temples but the street lines with perfectly aligned 100 foot cedar trees which the Shogun planted to line the paths! (Obviously most have been replaced by now). We wandered these grounds for a while until everything closed down. From here we wandered back down the main street of the little village to the ...

... were off to the Bowling floor. Like most things, the Japanese do not mess around with Bowling. There were giant flat screens playing music videos and images from the African Serengeti. The shoes are in vending machines and are pristine. I especially liked the ball weights, as the had lighter balls with large finger holes that allow me to chuck the ball harder than I can in the States!! That was enjoyable. The man of the game was Ken... not because he ...

So we get to one of our first relaxing places from the outside bandai-atami doesnt look that nice, probably due to its heyday being 15 years ago! The hotel we stayed at was called Kirakuya Inn not much from the outside but once inside it was really nice, it has 2 public onsens for men and women with many different baths and a sauna, and two private baths on the top floor observing the mountains surounding bandai. It was really nice, Michelle`s bag broke (also her hair drier blew up, we ...

... the topic of drinking, Mutsuo-san pointed out what looked like a pickled radish in a bottle, telling us that is was a Korean root that had been fermenting for 10 years. Mike pointed and asked "SHITEMOII DESUKA" (am I allowed?). I asked the Takahatas what the deal was with all the red triangles marked on all the windows of tall buildings. Mutsuo-san's explanation was quite entertaining. In the event of a fire, the firemen need to know via which windows they can enter the building ...

... bottom of the food chain). Also it impresses me to see cars that give you an extra wide berth, even when you're walking along the footpath. Nevermind that they could be driving into oncoming traffic. Oh and another thing. I completely suck when it comes to navigating. I lose my bearings at just about every corner. If it weren't for Mike we probably wouldn't have got to half the places we'd been to. Though on a couple of occasions, my navigationally challengedness has brushed off ...

... my comments to heart. So I humbly apologise if any people reading this think less of Dave. Dave's rather protective of my blog considering he isn't keen on sharing it with any of his family or friends. Oh well. Best to keep the peace. My "hand that needs to be held" comment was a bit out of line. We could not dismiss that fact that something spooky was going on with our train schedule. It was a day full of the number 13. We caught the train from Nagoya at 11:13, carriage 13 ...