Pension Bunk Myoko

... togeth 1000yen (7 quid) for dinner- 2 bowls of noodles, and then went to sleep broke and dreading that we would be stuck there forever. In the morning we arose early to try and get money but no-one could speak any english, nightmare! In the end there was one man from the bank who came and showed us where there was a 3rd atm, that we were unaware of, and sure enough it ejected those lovely yen notes for us :). We were very relieved, and went back to get our bags then left!

Nagano... ici Nagano. Apres la moiteur du sud, c'est un vent frais qui nous accueille dans cette ville de l'est des Alpes Japonaises. A Nagano il y a le temple Zenko-ji et les jeux olympiques d'il y a 11 ans, mais pas grand chose d'autre. Le temple renferme une icone de Bouddha vieille de plus de 1500 ans, mais personne ne l'aurait vue depuis plus de 1000 ...

... trains to deal with today. Nagano is much nicer than I thought it would be--the main street is pleasantly uphill and decorated with handing flowers and contemporary buildings. The main site is the major Zen temple Zenkoji. The walk up is pretty devoid of people, but the actual shrine grounds are totally packed, way more than I expected. Turns out that this is one of the years (every 7) that the enshrined Buddha is connected to a wooden post placed in the ...

... from 9-5pm and we naturally got there too late.

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!


Travelling Bumps
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Aside from the dire need to increase the minimum height of their ceilings by at least 6", Japan is grouse. Grouse food, grouse people, reasonably grouse ski slopes (OK, so I was spoilt by the French alps) and grouse food. The 10 days we spent there were just enough to get to know the people, culture and a wee bit of the language, but not too so long so as to get homesick and go running for Mc Donalds. However, it wasn't shprt enough to stop me from stacking ...

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.

... 2 TVs and machines, we could order drinks by ringing down to the bar. Once we all started there was no stopping us!! My favourite act of the night has to have been Brian and Takakos rendition of Barbie Girl!! Yudanaka Monkey Onsen Brian brought us on a fabulous scenic drive through the mountains north of Nagano. this is particularly spectacular at this time of the year due to the changing of the leaves. The mountains were like a patchwork quilt ...

... day to see all full with pagodas, temples, Buddha... but also to nourish some deer - 1200 deer in freedom in the parks in the neighbourhoods of the temples. In this temple, one can admire an enormous bronze Buddha. Behind Buddha, there is a column with large a enough hole for a pre-pubescent teenager. This hole is apparently the size of one of the nostrils of the large Buddha and if one passes through, one is ...

We landed in Tokyo last night and stayed the night at the Nikko Narita Hotel. This morning we took the shuttle back to the airport and then took the train to Ueda Station, where we met four gracious folks from Tomi City. They took us to a nice lunch of soba noodles and other tasty bits. Then, we stopped at the home where the Courtains are staying, and got to see a traditional Japanese home. Our hostess served us some locally grown fruit--huge, dark ...

... to come by to take us back into town. Eventually one arrived and we walked up to the Zenkoji Temple past a street full of temple residences.

We wandered around the temple complex and gardens and even saw someone ringling the large bell using a wooden log before walking back down to the train station and catching the train back to Tokyo.