The Saihokukan Hotel Nagano

... and pictures of japanese ladies. We spent the afternoon exploring the town and Mark had a chestnut icecream- the place is also reknowned for its chestnut confectionary. By this point we had spent all of the cash we had on us and were directed to 2 atms nearby, however neither would accept our cards (all visa) even though they had the visa logo on them. These were the only places to get money out in the whole town and we had no other way of getting any, arggh! So we ...

... Cependant une copie peut etre admiree en avril-mai tous les 7 ans. Bingo pour nous, c'est en 2009 que ca se passe. Le site est bien sur tres visite, meme en dehors de cette periode. Il est possible de descendre sous l'autel et suivre un couloir dans le noir complet pour pouvoir toucher la poignee de la porte derriere laquelle est censee se trouver la ...

... the comfort of this gesture...which kinda depresses me. Anyway, other than the racoon, a really pleasant afternoon at Zenkoji. Lots of multi-coloured streamers in wind, incense burning everything and tones of cosmic connections being made. I actually ended up on a line for blessings by a monk--he covered my head with some fabric, did some incantations and 5 seconds later, I'd been blessed...or baptised or whatever. I can't say anything really came to me ...

... from 9-5pm and we naturally got there too late. <br><br>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!<br><br><br>Travelling Bumps<br>Personalised travel advice for pregnant women<br>http://www.travellingbumps.co. uk<br><br><br><br>

... the biggest ninja there is. She's still going through Ninja pre pre school. I'm so Ninja, I could kill you with a thought, should I be so inclined. I could probably also kill you with my breath after eating Japanese for 10 days). Jobs done. Oh, and we saw a Geisha. Geisha = chick dolled up with pure white mascara who spends time with bored rich Japanese blokes in a clean, no touching, let me get a drink for you and light your cigar kinda way. Think beer ...

I am going to keep the chat to a minimum here and let the (many) photos do the talking. I went to Nagano to see the "Snow Monkeys". They were awesome. After a short 2km hike through snowy forested mountains, suddenly there were monkeys running across the path - and they literally came within an inch of my feet! Well worth the visit.

Parie en randonnee tres top ce matin car il n'y a qu'un seul train qui vas vers la station ou la randonnee commence. une fois arriver a la montagne, on doit prendre un gondole et 2 chair lift pour se rendre au point de depart du sentier. De la je me suis rendu au sommet a 2700m en 2 heures puis je suis revenue en 1heure et demi. Le temps de revenir a la gare et faire un peu d'epicerie, il est deja 17h00.

Aujoud'hui, il fait tres beau, pas trop chaud,18 celcius. Je suis partie en randonnee au mont Goryu, la base de la montagne est a 5 min a pied de l'auberge. C'est 6.2 km pour se rendre au sommet de 2007m d'altitude. Apres avoir marcher mes 12.4 km, je suis arriver en bas, ou il y a une piscine pour l'entrainement de saut en ski.

... your health. Another involved rubbing a sacred statue on the body parts that ail you, said to heal sickness. Outside the temple are areas for hanging wooden plaques. You write a wish on the plaque, or a prayer you would like to have granted and then hang it up. Inside the temple, there was a queue of people waiting for their chance to find the key to salvation! Needless to say we joined the queue, and found ourselves walking blindly through a ...

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