Kurayashiki Nonohanabatake Minakami-machi

Awesome 3 days summer camp in Gunma with Kokusai High School. We spend our time talking, walking, exploring and enjoying the great hotel. The scenery was awesome, the food was delicious and the students were "genki" and adorable. Honestly one of the best times I've had in Japan so far.

Exciting to see this fall. You can approach very up close to the fall. Of course, you have to be very careful because the rocks are very slippy. Like Niagara fall, huge amount of water is falling which create dynamic sound and mist into the air. The fall is located on rocky valley. So, you could also enjoy walking and viewing great rocks around the fall.

Usaburo Kokeshi (卯三郎こӔ 9;し) is the Japanese traditional doll "Kokeshi" shop and manufacturer in Gunma Prefecture. The founder Mr. Usaburo Okamoto has designed and produced Kokeshi. Not only producing traditional ...

... on shuffled Bob. It was at that point I went into shock, realising that I was actually standing within spitting distance (a good hefty spit) of the band I've idolised for years. Then they started. "The Tape" was their first song, then followed by one of my favourites, a very apt "Kyoto Song" and after that one of my absolute favourites "Fascnination Street" Then it went on as follows with some songs possibly missing. This is a list mixed ...

4/6/2007 Osaka to Takayama The train ride was smooth and fast. As the guide book indicated, there was a little space for big suitcases at the back of the car. Next time I swear to God that I'm bringing a little hand satchel and that's it!! I thought I had stayed in a traditional inn before, but actually I had stayed in a youth hostel. The youth hostel has tatami rooms and a permanent futon set up. Our room at the Sumiyoshi Inn had a short table and two 'Japanese flat chairs' set up ...

This weekend was fun too. Darcy and I went on a bit of a road trip with Steve (the driver), Shara, and Erin to Nagano ken to check out the snow monkeys. Very cool. There are these monkeys that live in the mountainous region of Joshin-Etsu Kogen National Park in Nagano and ...

... beer!" (gotta love the friendly Japanese). They even gave us a lift home to Toyama in their bus so we didnt have to take the long and inconvenient train ride!*Bonus! Cons: - I decided to copy Darcy and go off a jump, but I didnt land it and smacked my tail bone on the icy slope!!!! I thought I'd be okay once the pain subsided...but the pain didn't.... so I had to be carted down the mountain by the Japanese Ski patrol in a mummy ...

Today was a whirlwind. We were in a taxi at 8:45am to get to the train station. We then rode for 2 1/2 hours (In the AWESOME 1st class Green seats) from Tokyo to Matsumoto, which is in the provence of Nagano (Where the Olympics were held in the 80's). We were taken from the train station directly to the Concert Hall. Let me just say that this theater was BEAUTIFUL. It is only 2 years old, and is stunning. 4 teirs of seats. Really big ...

Nikko je tak star kraj z velik templji in velik tradicije. Najprej sem na vlaku spoznala 2 americana in smo cel dan skupi postopali po razlicini siteih in iskali samuraje. Nikko zgleda zelo avstrijsko, pravzaprav je vse zelo avstrijsko sam brez ene nafrfulenosti kot bi rekla moja mami. Tko k clovek hodi med unimi templji kr pricakuje da se bo prikazal en samuraj in pol za njim en divjo mongol na konju s sablo in divjimi ocmi! Vse je v zelenju in gozdu in tko deluje ...

Nikko is beautiful. A lot of temples and shrines and a very old bridge. Waterfalls and mountains. We`re having problems with the owner of our hostel (he owes us 540$ and refuses to pay us, the *******) so we`re staying at a friends place for now. We also ...