New Hotel Wakaba Matsumoto

... Jinja which was a quaint shrine with lots of pigeons. There were pigeons everywhere and they weren't afraid to get near people. Probably b/c people were feeding them bread crumbs. It was funny when all the pigeons suddenly took off at the same time and everyone ducked for cover. We also saw some little girls dressed up in traditional garb. There were some nice trees with colorful leaves too.

We finally made our way to ...

... es exquisito. No ves pintadas, ni basura, ni despojos. Si acaso ves unos señores que quitan con una cuchilla cualquier mínimo resto que no parezca suelo.

... 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.

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.

... ja einmal war uns so als ob uns etwas größ**es weit** oben eine zeitlang begleitet hätte ... bin schon etwas schnell** gegangen sich** ist sich**... Als Andi es auch bem**kte, hat ** noch sch**zhaft gemeint "Vielleicht gibts hi** ja Bären...haha" - jaja
ob uns d** H**r nur einen Bären, mit den Bären aufbinden wollte - haben wir jetzt im int**net nachgelesen... siehe auch hi**: http://japaninfo.at/news/japan-aktuell_ 18-barenattacken
Hui...na ...

... face, give face, dont loose face... says nowhere dont break promises or dont lie...
Anyway, after she repeated her invitation 3 times i said ok, they paid my beer, i paid my food.
NIce...what annoyed me was that she was inching closer and closer to me sexual harassment from a over 50 years old japanese lady?
whowww....
She then wanted to sing karaoke, so up we went, after some time i got a bill over 1700 yen, 17 dollar, went down and off she went without even saiing ...

... 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 ...

Alright, so I ended up getting roughly an hour of sleep, but I think it was less since I kept waking up. I let one of the Japanese kids sleep in my room since he was locked out and ended up on the couch and then trying to sleep in one of the classrooms. After Nanami and I stayed up talking all night, I really didn't want to sleep that much. It was a lot to digest, but it was a lot of fun. Breakfast came and went and then we had a final Q&A ...

... from 9-5pm and we naturally got there too late.

I love bullet trains in Japan. We got from Nagano back to Tokyo in the space of an hour and a half and summing up enough energy we found our ludicrously small hostel with a kitchen meant for 40 guests consisting of two hobs and a hot plate and crawled into bed exhausted!


Travelling Bumps
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... uehmt fu** seine Kueche. Hi** gibt es einige b**uehmte Spezialitaeten. - Basashi, das ist rohes(!) Pf**defleisch - Hachinoko, das sind Bienenlarven (od** larvae?) - Inago, Grillen (die Insekten) - Zazamushi, Koech**fliegenlarven (od** larvae?) Nun ich habe mir heute Mexikanisch und eine Bentobox Sushi gegoennt:-) Ich bin aus einem and**en Grund nach Matsumoto gefahren. Es gibt in Japan vi** Burgen, die Nationale Schaetze sind ...

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.

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