On the 8th, we slept in, and didn’t leave until 1 pm. We went by car to Tenri and parked at Maria’s apartment. There was a birthday party to go to that night. We took the train from Tenri to Osaka. This time we went to Yodabashi-camra. It’s a giant electronic store and fashion mall. After that we went to the top of the Osaka sky building. We then headed forwards the ferris wheel and ate at the top of the building nearby it. It had quite the view. After dinner we went back to Tenri where we met with a few of Maria’s friends. It is my last night. I’ll be going home to the States tomorrow.

I was in Nagano on the fourth through sixth.
Maria had planned a snow trip for eight of her friends and I. We would travel by train to the bus pickup and from there be taken by bus to the mountain resort. The bus would be traveling all night so we had to have an early dinner, and make do with whatever snacks we brought, or would purchase on the way.
Maria’s father took us to Maria’s apartment to where we picked up two other girls. We then went to the supermarket to purchase food and drink for the next days dinner. We then boarded a train and set off for Osaka. There we met up with the rest of the group. In total five nationalities were represented. There were three Americans, two Koreans, two Japanese, one Russian, and one Canadian. We then boarded another train to get to the bus pickup. After we boarded the bus, we were told that the bus would be stopping every two and a half hours a rest stop. I knew from my trip last year that Japanese rest stops were very nice. Often having a 24 hour shop and restaurant with free tea. It was a little cramped but I managed to sleep for a while between each stop. We finally arrived at the mountain around 7 AM. We had to walk in the snow to the resort’s rest area and wait for our check-in. We grabbed our rented boots, wear, and gear, and got into a snowmobile type vehicle. It was a very bumpy ride and I had to lay down on all of the luggage because there were no longer any seats. We had rented two cabins. The first one was the largest and had three rooms along with a kitchen, bathroom, and toilet room. The second one was much smaller with just the one attic room, kitchen, and bathroom/toilet combination. We went to the ski/snow resort and arrived just after 10 and started to ski and snowboard. The conditions were picture perfect, sun out and no wind. The mountain didn’t have very many people so there weren’t any lines on the lifts. We had a great time and took a break around noon to eat lunch and a meat/steak restaurant. The restaurant’s proprietor seemed very interested in talking to the many foreigners in his restaurant. After lunch we spent the next four hours on the snow. After that we were picked up and taken back to the resort. The resort was empty and we found out that we were the only ones not staying in the lodges and renting cabins. We could make as much noise as we wanted. The girls prepared a nabe (soup over fire, sort of similar to shabu shabu) dinner, and then we ate. We played a few games like Taboo and a pillow swapping game, then finally retired for the night. The next day it was snowing, and we were a little bummed about the weather. The snow was really piling on by the time we got to the lifts. The first couple of runs weren’t very good. It was difficult to see and the powder piled on too high. After a while though, we started to get used to it, and for the more experienced skiers and snowboarders it became a fun challenge. We ate (with a coupon!) at the nearby hotel, the Radiant, and later went back to the resort. We had checked out that morning, so we showered and bathed at the lodge. We then boarded the bus to get back. We arrived in Kyoto twenty minutes early and everything was closed. We couldn’t get into the station until 5 AM and the trains wouldn’t be running until 5:18 AM. Finally we boarded and after a few transfers got to Tenri, the home of Maria’s school, Tenri University. We said our goodbye’s and went our separate ways. It was a good trip.
I put a positive spin on everything. No need to spoil it with drama (there was some!).

I went to Kobe, known for it’s fantastic and succulent beef, on the 3rd. Surprisingly Maria had no intention of going there for the beef. Maria described the city as a super clean and pretty San Francisco. She wasn’t wrong. The city is situated around a bay. It is an ancient port dating several hundred (maybe a thousand) years ago. The city was nearly destroyed in an earthquake in 1995. It has been entirely rebuilt in the last 15 years so everything looks so fresh and clean. They have several foreign houses built by foreign sailors when they came into port for extended periods of time. Several of them are now cafe’s and museums. We walked around and came across on of those in the ground Greek Amphitheater type areas. They had silent comedy/magic/illusion acts there. They were very entertaining, and the crowd responded well by paying the performers handsomely. I got a personalized poem written for me by a hippie artist near there. He told me to pay him whatever I felt was right. I paid him 1000 yen, and with our dollar trading at $0.80 to ¥100, it cost around $12 USD. Maybe I should have given him a $5, but their smallest paper denomination is a $10 (actually 12, are you converting the currency?). Anyway it is very beautiful and I can’t really complain. At least I know that this Kanji doesn’t mean “great tree up buttocks” or something of that nature as I would receive in San Francisco. We had tea (actually coffee) at a small cafe owned by a French proprietor. He was friendly and so very French. Lol.

The next day the 2nd, I went to Kyoto. Kyoto is an ancient city known for it’s beauty (what isn’t in Japan, ugh) and it’s green tea. We took an early train to Kyoto station and took a bus from there to Toei Studios. They have an Edo period village built there where they film period dramas. The village has several attractions where people in period dress portray characters of the time. We went to a haunted house and got freaked out by a bunch on monsters in there. It was kind of fun in a frightening way. Maria kept jerking me around so it was hard the see the monsters. That might have made it more frightening. After that we went to The Golden Pavillion: Rokuon-Ji Temple. Maria’s mother picked a “healthy vegetarian” restaurant on the way home. She has been so accommodating with my diet that I felt that I had to pick up the tab for the meal. It felt good being able to do something nice for her.