Day 8. 19th

birthday cake
obachans gyosa
spying on grasshopper

Chestnuts! Day Six.

Today we left the house around noon and visited a museum about how Japanese people have used light over time. After we went to a restaurant where they serve their local specialty of rice with chestnuts. It was so good! After lunch we visited a museum of Hokusai's woodblock paintings, like his very famous one of the tsunami wave. We walked though the cute little tourist village and then drove to the Ganshoin Temple where Hokusai painted the huge bird painting on the ceiling. Haha! I remember walking though the temple and my mom saying "there are monkeys so if you see one don't pay any attention to it or it will attack." Mireya and I then really wanted to see if a monkey would come out but non did. :/ it was soooo hot, we must have past by five ice cream or shaved ice stands. Back at home it started raining and it still is! But at least it makes it a little cooler!

Errands. Day Five.

Breakfast drama
Empty trash
Fruit stand
Post office
Grocery shoping
Cake shop

Softo cream galore! Day Four.

Temple
Shaved ice
Ojichans hat
Ohyaki
Soba shop cute waiter
Konyaku shop
Katsura tree
Softo cream soba spinach miso
Corokket

Day Three.

Walk with mireya
Naumans elephant
Cake shop
Shimamura
Small diner

Onsen. Day two.

1st soba.
We ate in the "Katsura" room at the onsen.

Off on a jet plane! Day One.

August 11th/12th: The three of us left on our first ANA flight! We ate Japanese meals and watched movies until our nine hour flight finally brought us to Narita. But it was so funny to see what Mireya found on the touch screen...Kina Grannis in the music library! We were so happy to receive Haagen Dazs ice cream, so cute!

We then took the Shinkansen to Nagano with our bentos. My sukiyaki self heated!

We finally arrived in Nagano and our obachan met us at the triangle station. It started raining so hard! Hahahaa, we also saw some guys at the train station trying to break dance...trying...haha. We all took a taxi 30 min away from downtown up closer to the mountains. It's so pretty here, like a little story book forest!