Feeling Olympic in Nagano

So, I'm in Japan, and all is well. There. That's out of the way. Now for the details.

A couple more days in LA was great, it was so nice an hot Monday and Tuesday, it was fantastic! Josh, Trey and I went out to dinner in the most amazing Brazilian restaurant in Hollywood Tuesday night, and it was just such a perfect 'last supper' in the US with two of my best friends. The food was fantastic, the sangria plentiful, and the company superb. I stayed at Josh's place that night because he lives so much closer to the airport than Trey.

The flight to Japan was extremely uneventful, which is great, if you think about how that one is the longest flight I'll have this entire trip, haha. I took a sleeping pill at take-off, and slept about 5 hours of the 11 hour flight, which of course is nice. Once I got to Tokyo, where I had a layover, there was apparently some issue with my papers (I sat in the immigration office for 45 minutes with no one telling me what the heck was going on!!), but in the end it was pretty uneventful, they gave me the right papers, some lady from the airline filled them out for me, and they let me pass. I got to Nagoya early evening, caught an early bus to Fujikawa, where I met Megan and Ben. We went home, had a Japanese Enjuku (or "Not-Beer") and then sleep for the night.

Friday morning I woke up around 4am, which is a trend that has continued to this day. I don't feel jetlagged, but I just can't stop waking up at 4am. At least most of the time I'm able to fall asleep again after that, so it's not all that bad really...

Megan and I decided to go around Nagoya while Ben was at work. So, we took the subway to Nagoya-jo (Nagoya castle). Sadly, this castle got bombed to the ground mostly in World War II, but they rebuilt it and it was still quite pretty. We got to climb all the way to the top of the castle, where we had a fantastic view of the city. And, it was quite a beautiful day, sunny and all, though of course not quite as hot as LA had been.

After the castle, we went downtown for some sushi. It was the first time I had sushi on one of those conveyor-belts (lopende band), which was cool. For those of you not familiar with the concept: the sushi-chefs put out various dishes on this belt that runs all along the bar where you sit to eat. You grab what you want, and when you're done they count the number of plates (which are color-coded because some sushi rolls are more expensive than others). I'm a big fan of sushi, and so real Japanese sushi was just something I had to experience.

After sushi, we went to the Robot museum. My favorite part was right where you first walk in, where they had a couple of robots doing tricks etc. It included a robot which was programmed to play a song just by the noise it made when turning certain ways. It's hard to explain but it was pretty cool. The rest of the museum was more like a history of robotics, which was interesting but not as fun as we had hoped. Though the various robots and robot-pets at the end that you could play with yourself were still very cool!

Friday night, after Ben got home from work, we enjoyed a home-cooked meal, Japanese style. So, sitting down on the little floormats at a low table, we enjoyed a sort of soy-stir-fry (roerbak), which tasted great (Megan's a really good cook!!). We didn't stay up too late because we were planning to get up early (4.30am) Saturday morning to drive to Nagano. At least getting up that time was no problem for me (I actually woke up at 4am again anyway).

The drive to Nagano went quite fast. The speed limit on the highway in Japan is 80 km/h (50 mph) or sometimes even 50 km/h (30 mph), but that's ridiculous. Luckily they announce well in advance where they are checking the speed limit so Ben flew through traffic. The weather started to get a little bad though as we progressed, with rain that turned into snow as we got higher up into the mountains. Oh well, snow when you're going skiing isn't that bad, right?

The area we went skiing on Saturday was pretty cool, not as big as most French ski-areas I'm familiar with (i.e. not as many lifts/slopes), but the runs were cool and everything was quite well-kept. Of course the snow pouring down made the snow really soft, so it was hard work skiing. But still, beautiful. Too bad they closed down our favorite lift in the afternoon, but we got a lot of skiing done. We ate our packed lunch on the mountain, which was great to warm up.

After we were done skiing we checked into our hotel, but then we went to a real Japanese On-sen. For those of you that don't read Megan's blog (http://www.thirdborn.com/blog/megan.php), the closest way I can describe an on-sen is the traditional Japanese version of a spa. Basically, you come in (they're cheap, b.t.w.!!), men and women each to their own side, you strip down, shower off, then go sit in this natural spring water that's so nice and hot. It's a social thing in Japan, but really, after a long day of skiing, it felt SO good on our sore muscles, it was great!! After you're done you can hang in the lobby, where they have massage chairs etc. set up. I now understand completely why Megan was so excited about these, they're definitely one of the coolest typical Japanese things, haha!

Saturday night we went out for dinner to a place recommended by the Australian guy who ran our traditional Japanese lodge, but clearly he didn't know what he was talking about. We sat and waited for food for over 2 hours, but at least we had plenty of Japanese beers in the meanwhile... After walking in on a private party at another restaurant (in search of food!) we found another place that fed us properly at last. When we got back to the lodge we were so tired, we pretty much passed out on our little futons right away.

Sunday morning after Ben cooked us all some eggs (to order), we went to a different ski area; on Saturday, we went to Hakuba Happo (where the ski-jumping was during the Nagano Olympics in 1998), but on Sunday we went to Tsugaikekogen ski area, just 10 km (6 miles) up the road. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and sunny, and of course there was still plenty of snow, which was well prepared throughout most of the area. We got a LOT of skiing done in the morning, and after another packed lunch outside in the sun, we ended up skiing until about 2.30 in the afternoon. The drive back was a lot slower, but we still made it home before 7 pm, and after Megan and Ben had picked up Reggie (dog), we had some great chili that Megan made for dinner.

Right now it is Monday morning, Ben's at work, and Megan is having her Japanese lesson right here in the room (they're both quite impressive at Japanese already, at least, to my untrained ears). This afternoon we'll go cruising the area a bit more, and tomorrow Megan and I will leave for two days to go to Kyoto and Nara. I'm loving Japan so far and Megan and Ben are so hospitable, it's just been a great experience!