Villa Norikura Matsumoto

... onsen”) and all piled out of the van and went in. Before Toshi and I could get in the door and to our wallets, they had paid for our entire party’s admission to the onsen. We were all a little hungry so we decided on dinner first, onsen later. We had miso soup, pizza (sort of), ramen and Korean barbeque. It was all very wonderful! The Korean barbeque is cooked at the table over a gas burner. Cabbage, and bean sprouts cooked along side this delicious beef served with a ...

... manhole covers in each of the towns we visited.

It was noon so we went to grab some lunch. There was a soba (a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It's served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth) restaurant named Nomugi that was recommended by Lonely Planet. According to the guidebook, the owner was a famous soba maker in the region. We were only given an address of the restaurant and ...

... 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 ...

... but delicious, flavor (something akin to cooking food in banana leaves). The beef was superb. Hoba miso and Hida beef were on my “To Eat” list, so I was happy to get them both the first night. Also had an assortment of mountain vegetables, most of which I could not recognize in the least, including this weird thing that had the texture (but fortunately not the flavor) of pickled roe. Neither jes nor I ...

... the citys 1500 dollar a month is a average income by now...
and a lot of people do stupid jobs...in a fuelstation you have a lot of people for giving you the bills, filling your tank, wiping your windscreen...same same for building sites on the road ..always people with flags who say you what you can see yourself...even in supermarketparkingspaces you have guys stopping the pedestrians like we have it for small school children...
ah, and the screming guys outside the ...

... 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

... was fun. The view from the top was great (see pics). From here we were starving (we didn't get a chance to have proper lunch earlier). We had planned on eating at a specific place called Kura we read about which was very hospitable and sounded yummy. We even scouted it out ahead of time on our way to the castle. When we arrived, it was closed! Very disappointing. Masumoto is a very cute villageish city and we fond lots of other places walking around. We ...