Friday, April 7, 2017
Nagano to Kanazawa

Our hotel provided a very nice buffet breakfast.  We were able to linger a little bit because we did not have to leave the hotel until 11:00.  We walked over to the train station and purchased snack food for the train to Kanazawa.  It was a very pleasant two hour train ride. In Kanazawa our hotel was actually connected to the train station!  We walked through an amazing, huge food court on the way to the hotel.  I immediately spotted a chocolate store that I knew I would return to later.  We checked into the very nice hotel and then we all met in the lobby for a walk to Kanazawa Castle Park.  It was an incredibly beautiful walk with one gorgeous cherry tree after another.  I could absolutely post 100s of pictures but I'll try to restrain myself.  

Our walk took us to Kenroku-en Garden which was very, very crowded.  Our tour leader suggested we come back later in the evening or early the next morning to really see the garden without so many people there.  David and I decided we would get up early the next morning and take a taxi to the garden so we could really enjoy it.

From here the group split up a little bit.  David and I walked to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kanazawa Noh Museum to learn more about classical Japanese musical drama.  The minute we walked into the Noh Museum two employees grabbed David and mimed that they wanted to dress him up.  Of course he let them!

We really enjoyed both museums!  Then it was time to head back to the hotel.  It was quite a long walk but we ran into Sally and Dion on the way back and had fun talking to them. This is a cool statute we saw on the way back to the hotel.  There was nothing to identify the work, so David named it: "Jumping Through Your Asshole."   

There was not a planned dinner tonight which David and I were very happy to hear.  We just went back to our hotel room and ate snacks for dinner (cookies and chocolate) and went to bed early because we planned to get up early on Saturday morning to go see Kenroku-en Garden by ourselves.  

Thursday, April 6, 2017
Karuizawa to Nagano

Another amazingly beautiful breakfast this morning before checking out of the hotel for a shuttle bus ride to the train station.  Today we took the bullet train to Nagano.  

This is a terrible picture of the bullet train but it comes and goes so fast it's hard to get a good picture.  I'll try to get a better one later.  

It was a very fast trip to Nagano (host city of the 1998 Winter Olympics) and we enjoyed the bullet train very much.  It is super quiet and smooth.  We all wished we could have ridden the train longer.  When we arrived in Nagano we had a short walk to our hotel. Love the cool wooden gate at the entry to the station.  The top part of it is actually a bowl.

The hotel lobby was beautiful!

After we checked in and dropped off our luggage we boarded our private coach to the Jigokudani Monkey Park.  David and I had both really been looking forward to this adventure.  We could hardly wait to see the "snow monkeys" bathing in the hot springs.  It was a rainy day and the trail up to see the monkeys was very muddy.  Thankfully at the trail head there was a small hut renting boots. What a great business!  It was about a 45 minute hike with lots of beautiful scenery along the way.  We could not get enough of these cute monkeys and spent a few hours there.  Here are some pictures . . . aren't they cute?

We really had to drag ourselves away from watching them play -- but we had to hike down quickly, grab a bite to eat and get on the bus!  We ordered our "light lunch," and David practiced his Japanese and ordered himself a piece of cheesecake.  Except that he accidentally ordered EIGHT pieces of cheesecake!!!  The waitress kept delivering piece after piece of cheesecake and we finally figured out what happened!  It was pretty hilarious and the four people at our table managed to eat five pieces!

We climbed back on bus and rode back to the hotel.  David and I were both exhausted so we decided we would skip the group dinner that night and just pick up some snacks and eat in our room.  We texted our tour leader and he came to our room to talk us out of skipping the dinner because it was such a nice place and such good food that he didn't want us to miss it.  Soooooo, we bucked up and went and we are very glad we did!  The restaurant, called Fujiya Gohonjin, is in a 1923 building and it is gorgeous.  The food was spectacular. One of our favorite meals of the entire trip!  The first course was shaved ham and a "salad" of asparagus spears, apples and I can't remember what else.  The second course was some of the best asparagus we have ever eaten with red sauce, a fried egg and parmesan cheese baked on it.

The third course was a pasta dish and the fourth course was a risotto dish.  Both were very, very good.  We both wished we could have had more risotto.  It may seem strange that we had two pasta dishes in a row.  It's because the other diners were having seafood dishes and we don't eat seafood.  It was fine with us!

My entree was beef with peas and shaved cheese.  David's was roasted vegetables and some kind of a spring roll.  We both loved our entrees!

Dessert was very pretty.  It was strawberry mousse and it was delicious!

We did have an interesting thing happen at the restaurant.  One of our tour mates, Richard, went to the men's room.  While he was standing there, he suddenly felt the room shake and could hear cutlery and plates shaking outside the door.  We had an earthquake! A few other people felt it too but we did not.  We are very happy it wasn't more serious!  

The dinner was elegant and delicious and we are very happy we decided to go -- even though we were completely exhausted. Luckily we were able to get a very good night's sleep.  

Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Karuizawa

Breakfast was pretty fancy!  It started with soup and salad.  My salad had ham on it but David's, of course, did not.  Then eggs with meat. We also had yogurt with raisins and granola and rolls and croissants.  Excellent!

As usual we boarded the bus at 9:00 for a full day of sightseeing with an expert local guide. Her name was Chie and she was a great guide! The first place she took us was to the A.C. Shaw Memorial Chapel.  It is dedicated to the Canadian minister who popularised Karuizawa as a holiday resort.  He was a Christian minister and built the chapel so he would have a place to worship when he was there.  

Where David is standing, below, he had one foot in one prefecture and the other foot in another prefecture.  Japan consists of 43 prefectures which indicate administrative divisions of Japan. 

We then stopped for a coffee break at the Mampei Hotel where John and Yoko Lennon used to frequent.  On the menu there is a tea available (John Lennon's Royal Milk Tea) that was supposedly John's favorite.  I don't remmember exactly what was in it but of the four of us at our table, only one of us was brave enough to order it!  I think it was half tea and half cream.

David and I played it safe and had hot chocolate (him) and cappuccino (me).

Then we headed to a restaurant where we learned to make soba noodles.  This cute goat was tied up just outside the door into the restaurant.  I sure hope he wasn't going to be someone's dinner later!!!

The kitchen was all set up for us when we arrived.  Sally and Dion lined up right next to us.

After we mixed and rolled out our soba noodles, we cut them as thinly as possible and put them into individual bags so we would get to eat the actual noodles we made.

The noodles look delicious, don't they?  Only problem was, they cooked them in dashi broth which is made with fish so . . . I didn't eat them.  However, I did eat the ice cream they offered us after the noodles!

Lunch was a short stop in a long day of sightseeing!  Next the bus took us to the Mount Asama Stone Park to see the lunar landscapes created by the lava flow.  The area was very stark and dramatic and we thought it was gorgeous.  On the hike up to the shrine there was a bell and legend says that if you ring the bell once with the wooden log, you are forgiven for all of your prior sins.  I figured what the heck?  I could always start over!

We also got great views of the steam escaping the top of the mountain/volcano.

When we returned to the bus the bus driver had built us a snowman.  He had been our driver for five days and we all loved him.  He was very polite and professional but he had a fun side too!

The next stop was the Shiraito-no-taki Waterfall.  What an incredible sight to see the "length" of the waterfalls.

And a group picture.

One final stop with the local guide was to do some shopping on Karuizawa Ginza.  David bought a delicious bottle of plum wine and I bought two cherry blossom scarves.  We didn't have much time before we boarded the bus to return to the hotel.  

Dinner this night was at a lovely restaurant called the Longing House.  

I'm not sure why but I only have pictures of David's salad and his lovely main course.

As you can imagine after reading the above, we were exhausted after the long day and wasted no time getting ready for bed!