Blogs from Nagano, Japan, Asia - page 13

(Blogged on 19 December but posted under December 14) I reckon if i do not keep up with posting, i will soon forget all the details of our trip. The past few days have been busy as we moved from one town to another. Apart from rushing from one tourist attraction to another and literally running to catch buses and trains, there was also unstable wi-fi, and i was just not willing to risk having a painstakingly typed out message from being eaten. Anyway, we arrived in Matsumoto by train today - our main mode of transport in Japan, and also one of the main consumptions of our budget. On the train, we were joined by several other backpackers, and for some strange reason that can only be explained by human psychology, all of us backpackers ... read more

Destination: Kurumayama Plateau, Nagano Prefecture (Distance from Tokyo: 195km, approximately 122 miles) Map → http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/nagano/sirakabako_yatugatake.html 　 Date: August, 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you know how hot it is in Japan in the summer? Maybe you don’t wanna know, because it’s CRAZY hot and muggy, too. You can go crazier than the weather is by the heat waves. Especially in big cities like Tokyo, it’s like hell because of the heat island effect and maybe more of the global warming. You feel the high temperature is attributed to something unnatural such as exhaust gas from vehicles. So you wannna get away? Of course you do. So does everybody. But do you have an idea of where to go to pursue the natural mild summer weather in Japan? Ask my wife. She knows how to cool herself... read more

Masumoto Checked into our hotel, then Kay and I walked to the 16th Century castle see pics. The castle is in really nice surroundings. Inside, the narrow corridors with wooden beam floors was quite dark. The views through the narrow windows into the gardens and across the moat were good. The stairs were quite high as I recall with no provisions for wheelchairs etc. On the walk back to the hotel we had a mocha ice cream. Other flavours we will try are green tea, red bean. Other flavours available are all types of fish, beef, garlic, salt and others. We returned to the hotel from the back entrance next to the car park. I spent 10 minutes or so watching people putting their cars into a lift, then getting a ticket from the warden ... read more

One of my first stops in Japan was in Jigokudani monkey park, north of Tokyo just outside Nagano. There is a lot of snow in the area and the monkeys get really cold - fortunately for them there are also a lot of hot springs and they like to warm up by soaking in the hot pools in the valley they inhabit. Here are some adorable pictures of them. ... read more

I've got internet back for 1 night before I fly home so I'm uploading some backdated blogs backdated to stop your complaining! They carry on from where we left off... After another enjoyable breakfast with Verdi, followed by my blog writing session, the husband returned triumphant. The Copper Pheasant had been sighted! Alas no photos but you can't have everything. Thank you for all the good luck wishes, it obviously made a difference!  Turns out the deer footprints he saw the previous day were actually wild pigs. He watched a family of 8 crossing a river and the adults weren't of the cute variety - good job he saw them from the top of the valley!  Mark has also found an ingeneous new use for the canned hot coffee - stick it in your snow boots ... read more