City and Mountain Touring

Although we're getting some snow, it's not enough to keep us away from some immersion into Japanese culture. One of the things missing in Myoko is actually some decent Sushi. After visiting the temple in Nagano, we had some great sushi to get some variation into our diet.

This just half the portion...

So the next day, inspired by touring the city of Nagano, I took some Active Ski guests touring up to the intermediate peak Mt. Mael at just below 2000 m. All were warned about the so-so conditions of the climb and the descent, and it all turned out really great.

The climb was full of bushes and bamboo, but on the descent we did get some great turns that were doubly well-earned!

Touring uphill is almost as fun as skiing down!

Then we finally did reach the peak after perhaps 90 minutes of walking. Unfortunately the view was not great due to bad visibility, but everyone is always happy when reaching a peak. Even if the peak is below the tree line at almost 2000 m!

High life at the top!

Picking up the thread from a few posts about things about Japan can can become annoying for a while:

• What's wrong with providing napkins and paper or towels to wipe your hands? Japan has two kinds of utility paper, small napkins that simply do not absorb liquid and kleenex. These are used for all thinkable purposes, when they are at all available which is rather rare. I thought they did not have trees, but from where I'm looking they have zillions of them!
• Japanese people are very quiet and polite. So why do they have the most sound polluted country I have ever visited? It's like it's never quiet.

Since I'm getting over the worst of my culture shock, I'm not really that annoyed anymore and things are returning to normal where I also start to see some of the advantages. For example, everyone is always very polite and helpful. Arrangements with buses and stuff like that just works (for those of you reading my posts from last year from Italy, that's a difference from there and then...). Everything is always on time and running according to schedule. How about that, Italy!

Each country has it's own idiosyncrasies and Japan is no exception, but I certainly think I could learn to really enjoy life here.