What day is it?

We are again chillin' in the train station at Karuizawa. Today we will head down to Tokyo and try to get our shopping done. We need to make sure and buy all the useless crap that we can put on a shelf somewhere, or at the very least, give to someone else so they can stick it on a shelf somewhere. And who doesn't want a nice big shelf, piled high with crap.
The train for Tokyo leaves in about 10 mins. so until then we get to sit in there unheated waiting room. But at least its only -2c, which, if I am using the correct calculations ((A-G)x(F-G-B/C+A)-32), then that is somewhere in the 20's.

Back to Kuruizawa.

We are in the train station, which is the last place we can get internet in Kuruizawa. Daifuku was pretty cool, but you get no pics and only this lil' explination, 'cause it's closeing.

"New" Omi Hotel.

We took a 5 hour train ride today to arrive in Omi-Hachiman. Which, if my Japanese is what I think it is, means, Omi-"8"man. Now our Japanese lesson is over. We wandered around the town for a few, but its a pretty small farming type town. But it is where we meet the bus that takes us to our big factory tour of Diafuku. But I also get to watch Knight Rider in Japanese to help me fall asleep.

And if I have learned anything today, it's that it is always 6 somewhere.

Snowboarding!

So we were in Kuruizawa and I thought, "I may as well go snowboarding in Japan." And so I did.
This is the small resort town of Kuruizawa. Its not a bad place but our hotel is up in the mountians, about 20 mins from town. And the shuttle from our hotel stops at 5:20pm because winter is their off season.


I have no idea who these 2 are, but they were excited to be in a white kids pictures.

No internet in Kuruizawa.

Today we transferred to our new hotel in the mountains of Kuruizawa. The resort is named VIX. It is about 20 mins from the center of the town of Kuruizawa. It’s a small, small town. Apparently it is booming in summer, but in the winter there are only visitors to the ski resorts. I hope to go skiing tomarrow, but I will have to rent everything but a beanie. So we will see. I also hope The Kip doesn’t get to bored. We have 2 days, then on Wednesday we go to a town near Kyoto to spend the night and visit Daifuku. Up here in the mountains we don’t get internet so it may be a few days till anyone reads this.

Fish Market.

We woke up at 4.30am this morning to take a train down to the biggest fish market in Japan. Maybe the world, I forget. It was pretty fancy. We watch the Tuna auctions for a while and then just wandered, checking out the wares.
This video is of an auctioneer.

Frozen tuna.

Tokyo Auto Salon Pics.

The Auto Salon is the coolest car show I have been to, ever. Its loud, shiny, chromed, crowded and worth it. It is split up into 3 different sections. Each section is almost twice as big as the South Town Expo Center. If you don't know how big that is, its way, way, way, really, way big.
We had 5 hours the first day and I rushed myself through 2 sections., I walked into the 3rd just in time to leave. So I went back today and spent 5 more hours inside, and another 3 in the parking lot. So cool!
I have piles of pictures, so I just put a few together. Hope you dig 'em as much as I do!!!

You really have no idea how excited I am!!! (Thats three exclamation-points excited.) So excited infact, that I found the lamest back ground I could for my slide show.
P.S. So excited that I forgot to eat all day, its now 9pm and I am just now eating!!!