Niigata City Hotel Shinkan

... im Zug weiterzulesen...bis ich dann zur 3. Seite gekommen bin. Da hat die Mutter dann aufgehoert mit dem Kind zu reden und da fings dann so richtig mit ordentlichen Kanjis an...Na auch egal, hab mir 2 Horror Buecher (heute das 2.) gekauftt, wo ich den Film schon gesehen hab und ein anderes Buch, auch von einen Film (ich glaub das ist so typisch japanisch herz/schmerz mit schlechten ende...mal sehen) : ずっと、ず ;っと、あ ...

... ordered 6 different types of sake and had a sake tasting session which was a lot of fun. The next day we rode an old steam train to Niitsu, a small town, and walked into a forested area to see ancient burial sites. It was interesting to visit some Japanese wilderness areas.........not something we would see as tourists. I (Rajiv) did read that even though Japan has a population of about 129 million people, they are ...

... came and went so I though - OK there;s a bit of life it will be Ok. Then I started to think at nearly 8 that there really should be a boat by now so I rang the ferry office and got an automated message in Japanese. I then looked at my guidebook and saw that it was an 18hour journey and did the maths (it was meant to arrive at 4.30 the next morning). Ooops. After cursing myself and realising I was in the middle of nowhere with no ...

Every year, Niigata holds a sake festival over a weekend in March. It has gotten so huge now, there was about 100 seperate stands, all selling different labels of sake. You pay 1000 yen ($10), and they give you a little cup. You then can go around to any stand and taste whatever you want. It was so crazy, you just walk around all day and they keep filling your little cup ...

... Takeshi Amano's aquarium gallery. He is very talented aquarium expert and photographer, his Nature Aquarium World books are quite famous. His aquarium product business Aqua Design Amano is based in Niigata, and they have a free public gallery of some of his tanks there. Unfortunately it is in the outskirts of town, basically in the middle of acres of farmland. I got on the right bus, and even remembered the Kanji for the correct station ...

Monday 11th Feb (cont.../d) A double decked Shinkansen train s**ved the route through the mountains. I couldn't believe it when I saw it as I'd become so accustomed to seeing sleek, tubular trains s**ving the west of Japan. As the train departed, I looked up outside the train window to see a crescent moon. It was a clear night and I knew it would be cold in Naeba. I was worried at this point, would I be able to find the resort, had I arrived in time to catch a bus to the resort, what ...

... the league's first All-Star Game. On Dec. 29th, before the game and during halftime I wandered aroun the arena to view the big, cutout cardboard postes of the league's All-Stars. Images that screamed for kids to stand next to 'em and have their picture taken, so when they got back home they could show 'em to their grandparents ...

We decided to head to the Japanese Alps, for you can guess it snowboarding ....... oh yea. It took 3 trains and a little longer than expected, 3 trains and 5 hours. It also would have helped if we didn't bypass the station we had to get off at, have to wait an hour for the return train, miss or hostel pickup and not have a monkies how to get to the hostel........ Just when ...

... meant that we didn't have our lighting rig with the fancy robo-lights, or our projection screen that shows stills from Aladdin during Act II, and we had a new seating arrangement for the orchestra. It was so interesting to have our "bells and whistles" stripped away from us(Don't worry... we didn't lose them all... we still shot Glow-sticks and Confetti at the audience at the end of the show!). I was curious to see the audience reaction, and if ...

... read but I got by ok. After returning to Tokyo around 17:30 I spent several hours in the musical instrument area of Tokyo around Akihabara. Shop after shop after shop after shop of everything musical. I was like a kid in a lolly shop and bought a couple of good things. I have only one more day before I fly out so I had better get some souveniers for delivery to Aus.