Super Hotel Matsumotoekimae

... all�. Desde luego no se trata de una de las zonas de las que m�s disfrutamos pero merece la pena caminar por el glamour de "Roppongi Hills" e incluso dejarse caer por uno de sus aseos p�blicos para investigar todas las opciones que te dan sus inodoros (chorros, vaporizador, asiento calefactado, m�sica, etc.). En su entrada y junto al acceso al metro est� la Plaza "Roku-Roku" con la celebre escultura ...

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 ...

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

so i am in matsumoto, out of the last 7 nights i spend 6 on parkbenches, the last time i took public transport was 8 days ago and suddenly i have a lot to write about...
First, a night in a youthhostel in JP sets you back around 35 to 40 dollar per night...nothing included, except the privilege to check in after 4 pm and leave before nine...ah...and at 9 pm they lock you in...thanks, then i prefer to sleep in my sleepingbag in a park,more fun, mmore adventure, more cheap....

Matsumoto, Chubu, Japan asci

... 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 ...

... and having nowhere to go, decided to recirulate over Kamikochi and dump everything on us. And it was miserable. Not the temp really, because I had a poncho that was a wind barrier and made a bit of a warmth chimney, but the driving snow (which was really tiny hail) on your face and eyes was painful. Since I spent a bit to get there and the weather reports were for some lightening of rain in Matsumoto and maybe some sunshine, I decided to do the 4 hour hike anyway ...

... s work) persevered and now we are back in contact with the world! It is just beautiful here and Rebecca is absolutely the sweetest little thing around (oh, completely CRAZY too, but that is just fine with me). So the plan is to stay as long as the government lets me, keep studying, enjoy the new country and culture and see what happens! I plan to get back to my original plan and return to the UK in 2008 to look for work...(but who knows, really?)...

2-day orienteering competition http://orienteering.com/nagano/event/19 94/n15/index.html ��15�񒷖쌧�I���G���e�[�����O��� ���� 1994�N8�� 1���ځu�M�B��ō����v 2���ځu�M�B�ɓߍ����܂��݃��u�v�i�`�F�C �V���O�X�^�[�g�j