Well this part of my adventure is now complete... Yesterday I woke up and had an amazing Japanese Breakfast at this hotel. Everything from a poached egg to mandarain oranges and miso soup. After that drove around and checked out the valley. Iya Valley was very very impressive. If mist covered mountains, vine bridges, and tons of greenery sounds good to you, you'd love it here. Felt very exotic, minus the well paved roads. The area has quite a number of small villages sprinkled throughout it, with the shops, homes, and schools built literaly into the side of the mountain. Many of them are built on platforms sticking out of the side, living here must be a very unique experience. In the morning I checked out one of the famous Iya vine bridges. It wasn't quite ... read more

I'm writing this from a regular train the Marine Liner 35, in the Green (or First Class) car. Not sure how I got put in first class but I'm not complaining. All it really means is nicer seats, but even regular isn't that bad. It's also a double decker car with me on the lower level which is kinda neat. Heading towards Shikoku Island. I spent yesterday chillin out in Kyoto, a city renowned for it's history and geisha quarters. I set out to see two places here. The first is a museum, however in it's previous life it was the Sumiya Pleasure House, which is as bad as it sounds. During it's peak during the Edo period (1600-1867) this area flourished with over 20 enormous ageya's or "floating world" halls. Here artists, writers, and statesmen ... read more

Part three of my postings on Matsumoto. I've taken the non castle pics and compiled them in here. Met a number of other travelers here, including a younger couple from Spain at the Ryokan. Their English was passable. Besides the castle I also stopped off in their small museum which I have a few pictures of and other various little stops in the city like Nacamachi Avenue. This is an older merchant district now converted into restaurants and shops, a very picturesque area. Walking around the city was always an adventure, other then the main streets, there really isn't any places to walk on the road other then right on the road. And when the road itself is a two way barely wide enough for a one way... it's exciting. Overall I really enjoyed my time ... read more

FIIIIIIIINALLY could upload this entry... flakey internet up here. Also got a video in this post of one of those whacking Japanese Game shows too.... ====== The minute you step off the train and hear the loud speakers exclaim "welcome to Ma-tsumo-tooooooh" you know your in for something a bit different. The ride up here is through some gorgeous mountainous terrain and takes you through Nagano, where they held the Olympics some years back. The city itself is a good mix of Cosmopolitan city life with even a Starbucks, and traditional Japanese architecture. The city's main attraction is Matsumoto-jo, one of Japan's four top castles. I got a lift to the Ryokan from the owner, which was nice since the Ryokan itself is a fair ways away from the train station. First time in a Japanese ... read more

Whoops forgot to hit Publish on this yesturday... was pretty outa it when I wrote this due to lack of sleep: ===== So todays my final day on the island of Hokkaido. Yesterday visited the Sapporo Beer museum as well as the city of Otaru. The Sapporo Beer museum was smaller then I pictured it, but not too bad. Most of the signage was in Japanese but I got the gist of it. My favorite bit was these little models they had setup that made it look like beer came from a Santas workshop type atmosphere. Made me chuckle and reminded me of the Simpsons episode where they go to the Duff Brewery theme park. The tastings they had were relatively cheap, and the actual grounds was very nice. Some pretty cool restaurants, went to one ... read more