what do you see?

So...last weekend we spent 3 nights in Hakuba, near Nagano city in the Northern Japan Alps. It's where the 1998 winter olympics were held. An out of season ski-resort is a very special place, especially with two huge, green ski-jumps looming hauntingly over the town...anyway, we went by shinkansen (bullet-train) which was amazingly fast and efficient, more so than we'd expected. Then it was an hour's bus journey to our town. We stayed in a small lodge, about 30 mins walk from the station. Our first night we were the only people there, so we got the restaurant to ourselves, and were able to share one of the Japanese style communal baths (the Ladies one in case you wondered). The manager, Mr Hirabayashi, was very friendly and nice, with only a few words of English - much more fun that way. He even gave us a lift back to the station on the day we left (it was pouring with rain) and lent us bikes for the whole weekend! On Saturday we spent the day hiking - first up a river (not dry) and then up a long twisting road in the mountains. The weather was dry, just about, but the clouds were hanging low, covering the tops of the mountains which was very atmospheric. Dinner was in a cosy restaurant, decorated in a kind of Christmas/New England style, where the owner took pity on us and gave us a free dessert...Next day we set off early and used the cable car and ski-lifts before hiking to a small lake about 2000 meters above sea-level. We had lunch up there - just some sandwiches as you'd expect, but the Japanese families (of which there were many even on a foggy Sunday morning, in expensive hiking outfits, with boots, sticks, huge backbacks, alpine bells...)...? Oh, they had rice, chicken, salad, tea, stew (which they cooked on stoves) etc. etc...Dinner was in a Tex-Mex place in town this time, the best Mexican we've ever had



On Monday, we spent most of the day in Nagano, and visited Zenkouji temple - one of the most popular in Japan. Its main feature is a pitch-dark underground tunnel, under�@the main altar, which you go through blindly hoping to find a handle on the wall which is supposedly the door to heaven...(we found it y the way).