Pension Sato Alpen Flora Suzaka

The guys wanted a bit of a down day so I decided to head off on my own and explore a bit. Originally I was to just do Tokyo but I noticed Nagano was under 2 hours on the magic bullet train so... I thought I'd head up there instead. I got up around 9am and took several trains (I'm getting quite good at this part) to arrive in nagano around 12:30....

WOW so much has happened since we came on here last! To make it easy
and quick I:m going to do this in dot points. SOrry about the grammer
too, am using a Japanese Keyboard:
* woke up early (4:30am) to go to
the Tokyo Fish market. Was raining a lot and we got wet. Saw auction
for HUGE tuna fish! was almost as big as a whale. ...

Jigokudani is famous for Japanese macaques soaking in the hot spring and they are called snow monkeys. Jigokudani in Shigakogen, a Winter Olympic venue held in 1998, is a little bit far from my home town, but still it was possible to go and come back on the same day. I planned to stay in the park for half an hour, but eventually, I stayed there ...

Historically known for previously hosting the Winter Olympic Games, Nagano wasn't a hard choice to select for skiing... well, actually snowboarding.

Since middle school, I had been a skier. I thought it was classy and easier to learn. But then I picked up a surfboard, tried wakeboarding, and got into skating. So, I thought it was time t...

consider this, yamanouchi is a city very similiar to centerville. centerville? yes. centerville. the city from the episode of the twilight zone where a couple goes to a party and gets so drunk. they wake up the next morning to find themselves in a ghost town. eventually they discover they are in a fake model town and are now pets to a gigantic a...

Sorry about the Mega-post below. Be warned!

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We had to wake up very early the next morning after Nozawa... getting about 3.5 to 4 hours sleep. I had a ski lesson starting at 9am, but we had to have breakfast then go to the ski hire place to get our skis and clothes.

Evergreen Outdoor Centre (The Ski School)

When...

Due to our skiing tickets being all used up, we decided to use our day off on a more cultural experience by visiting the national park in Nagano, home to around 200 snow monkeys. Although technically called something different, the snow monkeys get their name from the behavior they exhibit in the winter months when the snow falls - that is, taki...

Arriving in Nagano at just after midnight we looking for a way to kill 9 hours until our bus for Nozawa Ski resort came. We found a 24hr maccas and had feast there. We attempted to sleep in the restaurant but clarky had found a manga cafe were you can sleep/watch movies/internet/free drinks and take a shower for around 20 bucks for 5 hours. We h...

After Spencer sleeping all day in the TV room nursing a hangover and then me booking a hotel in the completely wrong area of Japan (although very very luxourious resulted in a 7.15am wake up call to get to Nagano) we made our way to the snow monkeys!

After getting our bus to literally the middle of nowhere, we then walked for 40 minutes...

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.

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