The weekend

Hello all,

Well thanks for whinging at me for not having posted for a few days - Stu!! I have been in Yumanashi for the weekend. We went to visit Kenji (my friends other son) On the saturday morning we set off there and got there about lunchtime and had some other traditional Japanese food which was odd - but nice. was kind of a mix between a  pankcake, some noodles and an omlette which I know sounds pretty odd, but in fact was very tasty. Once we had met up with Kenji he took us for a drive, now, Yumanashi is ringed by mountains - the Japan Alps. After driving up some pretty perilous mountain roads with plenty of hairpin bends covered in ice!! Was pretty sweet! Then when we got fairly high up (not sure how long it took as in tradditional Japanese fashion - I fell asleep) we reached a cable car and went up it to get a view of the Yumanashi basin. So that was pretty nice - fuji in the background again and all round good views for miles and miles. Then we headed back down to our Ryoen (Japanese Inn) to settle in.The room is basically tatami (bamboo mats) mats on the floor with a low table and a serving wench who poured us some tea. From the room you could see an immaculate Japanese garden and all was nice. They then took us to another room similarly layed out for the most amazing Japanese meal which was well yum. Then we headed back to our room to play Winning Eleven X (Kenji brought his PlayStation) Whilst we were out of our room they had layed out futon type mattresses and made our beds for us - ver nice.

Ps Winning Eleven X is Pro Evo and was great fun as is its way. Then as this Ryoen also had an onsen (Spa) we partook of that and at one point was sat outside in a lovely hot tub in very cold surroundings (it does get very cold at night in Japanese winter)

Sorry in the delay of this post - I was too knackered so just went to bed. It carries on here;

Next day we went for another drive and went snowboarding, which was my first ever go and it was ace. Took us quite a while to get there and to be honest I`m not sure where there was, but we hired out the kit and boards (Yasuo and I, Kenji has his own) and got all kitted up which was good fun and built the excitement then we headed onto the snow and had a 5min lesson from Yasuo on how to slow down. So after doing that (and not being able to stand up very well) I got my feet for it and so we headed to the ski lift to go up the beginners slope. Now it turns out that Yasuo is not very good at reading maps as the first slope we went down was NOT the beginners slope. Hmmm oh well......

So after I got to the bottom - which took quite a while due to the amount of time I was on my arse we headed up again and realised that if you turn left there is a beginners slope. Wooo. That was much better and I fell over a lot less, which my bottom appreciated. So this continued and we carried on, I was great, as is my way and we went down all the slopes during the course of the day including, again using Yasuo`s map reading skills the hardest ski only course which was a kind of slalom - but once we got to it we couldn`t go back - so down we went!! Was all good fun with only a few perilous drops down the sides.

I definitely improved and could go down pretty quick by the end of the day without too much of the falling over so I`ve decided to look up snowboarding again when I get to New Zealand - depends how much it vosts though as it was fairly cheap in Japan (was about 40 quid for hire of everything and lift pass) - though I guess it is locals only as I was the only non Japanese person there - again.

Once we finished snowboarding we headed over to another Onsen that is in the hotel at the resort there. This was a good thing and after a shower and a was, a boiling hot bath was just the ticket for my aching limbs. Again they also had one outside so surrounded by snow in the lovely warmth - it was grand. Then inside for a sauna, then more lounging then finally we had to leave. So we headed off back to Yumanashi to pick up Toshiko and Mikio and got on the bus back to Tokyo, eating our bento (sort of packed lunch of sushi that you can buy) on the way - then back home and pretty much straight to bed.

Next morning....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh pain!!!!

Didn`t realise snowboarding was this much effort - weirdly not my legs so much but my back and arms that are most pulled muscles - I`m so glad that we had the onsen though as without it I doubt I would be able to move at all (I`m writing this on Tuesday and I am still aching now - I don`t know how you could do this for a week and have to go back day after day whilst in pain - guess you just grin and bear it)
Luckily, I don`t have to grin and bear it hence me doing nothing today ;-)

Yesterday, Monday, We went to Disneyland - did not realise that there was one in Tokyo, but there is and as I have never been before I decided to go. I went with Saki and Kotomi (Yasuo`s friends) and Yasuo and it was good fun - I didn`t realise how kids orientated it is, but there were still some good rides there, so we enjoyed those and the girls enjoyed the whole thing - Japanese girls like the whole princess thing so we had to endure 2 parades of utter shite, but they had to endure the rollercoasters so I guess it was fair enough in the end. But they couldn`t get enough of the cheesy Princess thing. It was pretty cold there too as it is next to the sea and for the first time was overcast - boo hiss. It`s strange in Japan how hot the sun is - in England if the sun comes out it does not necessarily mean that it gets warm, but in Japan it does - it makes sense maybe its just England that is fubar`ed?

Anyway back home after that and pretty much straight to bed, at 11.30 as was knackered still - which brings us to now as I have slept for about 12 hours and thought I should come and finish this before I get whinged at some more for not writing it.

So today I plan to read and watch some telly and generally lounge around. So there you go. until next time readers, same bat time, same bat channel - well sort of anyway..................

(I`ll pop a couple more photos up in a bit too - will have to move off of the sofa though to get my camera to upload them, oh whoa is me, tis a hard life, but as it`s for you guys I guess I will make the special effort)


;-)