Four Hundred Days Til Re-entry

Happy new year, world

A week away from the net and see how it all piles up...

December 27th - I spent most of the day driving south to make sure that I would be on time to meet M but I took a look at "folk village" (tourist trap) near my hotel:


December 28th - more driving, this time right the way to Sendai airport where I met M off the plane. I did stop off at Matsushima, though. It is one of the top three for something or other in japan.


December 28th to 30th - We went to Zao onsen where we enjoyed some good snow and smelly onsens. Seriously, the water had some kind of sulphur-compound in it that made it smell like rotten eggs.


December 31st - Off to Sendai in the morning. It emerged that that hotel we were staying at did have a car-park as it said but it wasn't included in the price. For a price selling itself on price this was a swindle. Not happy. Anyhow, we welcomed in the new year with Mexican food and Cuba Libres. Here is M modeling the latest in designer drink-wear.

January 1st 2007 - We went to a place called "Whale land" which I had assumed would be a whale watching spot. It turned out to be a museum about whales. First thing I saw on left as I came through the door was... canned whale meat. The whole building was a museum dedicated to the history of whale fishing. Not quite what I had been hoping for...

January 2nd - Another mammoth day of driving all the way to Kusatsu Onsen, where we stayed the night. About 400km this day. On the way we stopped-off in Nikko, a place famous for daringly criminal monkeys and old temples and shrines.


January 3rd - we carried on to Nozawa onsen, where we were planning to go boarding. Alas, the sun had other ideas and scuppered our plans by melting all the snow. At this point we decided to cut our losses and head home. At around 9pm on the 4th we arrived back at our flat, tired but satisfied.

Labels: Japan, nikko, nozawa onsen, Sendai, yamagata, zao

posted by Between daisies @ 17:27