Pension Grindelwald Matsumoto

... city, had delicious saki (again) and went to a small private soy sauce maker. It was some of the best soy sauce I have ever tasted – and some of the most expensive too (I bought a small bottle for 780 yen!) The region is also famous for “Hida beef” which is similar in taste to “Kobe beef” but not as well known. We tried to get to a restaurant to taste this beef but the wait was two hours and none of us wanted to wait that long.

There was a great ...

... 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 ...

... the bartender spoke amazing english (he spent two years of high school in the u.s) and let us sample a plethora of sake varieties - hot/cold, dry/sweet etc.. until we had all found a favourite. This was followed, as many night henceforth would, by staggering into a local karaoke bar, and proceeding to serenade with and to the locals until around midnight when, to the tune of sweet home alabama, we sauntered home to pack our things for our train the next morning to Hiroshima.

... 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.

Bonjour,

J'en suis a ma 2e journee avec le groupe. En fait, 3e mais lundi, aucune activite n'etait prevue sauf la rencontre de groupe. J'ai encore un tres bon groupe. Un peu plus vieux mais je m'y attendais. Les gens sont gentils mais etant donne que la guide n'organise pas vraiment de lunch ou de souper en groupe, je ne leur ai pas vraiment encore parle. Ma co-loc est vraiment gentille....Elise, Sophie, elle est ...

... however, was very nice and friendly, although he didn’t speak a lick of English. Paid up front and he showed us to our room. Nice, 6-tatami mat room. Communal, but separate bathrooms and shared shower room. We drank our tea and ate our cookies and waited for supper.

Turned out we were the only guests eating supper that night. There was an English(?) family staying there as well, but they opted to go ...

... br>lol...but i have also a lot of experiences in the other way...here examples...

hitchhiking...quite easy, even as japanese never do it...funny thing is they invite you to food or give you money...almost always... i refuse always three times, and then i take what they want to get rid of...funny behavior, theoretically it schould be possible to earn money that way.

Otherwise japan is nice, very clean, not as ultramodern as you might think, also it seems that ...

... student.....being that we are soooo far behind, this will be - a picture is worth a thousand words...enjoy the pictures. Your students/children are doing great...we have been sleeping Japanese style on the floor for six nights and are anxious to move on to Hiroshima for real beds and bathrooms in our room. We have been taking the Japanese style baths every night!!...
Gosh, hard to believe our trip is almost over!!!

... she owns the whole of japan, this going on the " if i like it it's mine, if i see it's mine" principle.
i love you sweetheart. we both miss you both. i'm getting some stares here, so i need to go. i'll try to get on computer tonite. have to do laundry too.
i'll tell tim about orientation stuff. that was very thoughtful of you.
miss you much, you too kate :)
love you forever, like you for always
mom

... and in only 15 minutes you can walk to the surrounding mountians. Last week I went for a run and in 45 minutes I was on a mountain top looking down over the city - perfect! I think I have got over my initial shock from the first week, when I couldn't even say "watashi wa nihongo ga hanasemasen" (I don't speak Japanese) - but it is still a daily blow to have the communication skills of a 2 year-old child. Especially when the checkout chicks ...