The Japanese Alps

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After we'd left our hosts we went back to Tokyo for a couple of days. We went drinking in the Shinjuku district whic is the most impressive of them all. There is a great photo of me there in the gallery. Went to a few bars, mostly irish and British themed ones. Yet again we were pestered outside by black touts who were convinced all we wanted was whores. They would come up to you and try and shake your hand then not let go and tell you about their great club. We usually said we were looking for somewhere to eat or we were gay. We had to get the last train at 0030, cos we were staying in the cheap part of town that was too far to walk to. In one pub a cockney geezer bought us a pint which was good.

The next day (Friday) we went to the Sapporo beer museum which was free. The beer was very cheap and it was interesting enough. In the evening we went to Shibuya district, but didn't drink much as we had an 8 hour train journey ther next day to the Japanese Alps.

The journey was alright, a lot of connections to get the cheap train fare though. We arrived in Hakuba at 6pm and it was snowing hard! We've gone from 20 degrees in Tokyo with clear sunshine to snow within a few days! It snowed much of the night and there is deep snow today. We went up to the ski slopes, but didn't ski as it was too expensive. So instead Dave brought a bin liner and we climbed up the slopes instead of the lifts and slid down the ski slopes getting in the way of skiers and snowboarders! Got a good video of Dave on the slopes!

We go to the Orchard Cider farm in a couple of hours for one week before returning home to the UK on the 17 April, arriving in Manchester on the 18th, via Dubai.

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