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The Japanese Adventure - Day 38, Nagano
Jul. 8th, 2007 01:32 pmI woke up this morning feeling suspiciously cheerful. Hey, it's just as suspicious as waking up feeling gloomy for no reason! XD But the sun was shining, I slept well last night (I think I had good dreams, for once!) so I set off on the bus for Nagano. Got there fine, ate some soba and tempura, went to look at Zenkoji, the famous temple.
To be honest, it's unimpressive! It was crammed with people, there were no English signs and extremely limited English information, compared to a lot of other temples, and the temple itself was nothing to write home about. There was a nice collection of statues and paintings in a three-storeyed pagoda, but the only other noteworthy thing was the Key to Paradise. XD You go down some steps into a black dark corridor - you just keep your hand on the wall and keep going forward, and eventually you find this big metal thing on the wall, like a door knocker. Then you come up some steps and out. And... that's it. XD
So nagano hadn't taken me long! "I'm going to be back well in time for Shonen Club!" I thought to myself.
I wondered what to do for an hour or so - had a wander round the streets, nothing much of note; realised what I really, really wanted, was to sit outside with a beer and do some writing. But it's a bit weird, I didn't know where to go or even if that was the sort of thing you do in Japan, just go for a quiet drink on a Sunday afternoon! But eventually I came to this Indonesian sort of shop that had a roof cafe. "Is it OK to just have a beer?" I asked, and yes, that was fine! So they took me up to the roof and sat me down with this bunch of Japanese people who were doing the same, just having a drink. I was a little nervous - but it turned out to be awesome fun! They all spoke a little English, and two of them spoke pretty good English, and they'd travelled all over the place - all over Asia, Australia, and England too - they were having a meeting of their "Asia club" (like the Yokoyama club, haha) so I'm now a member! I got there about 3, my bus was at 5.20, but I didn't want to leave! Which I... almost never say, lol. XD I ended up missing that bus so we went for coffee, then they waited with me and waved me off. すごい楽しかった！ They liked English music, and we talked about anime and manga and dramas (Keita liked My Boss My Hero too XD), and my Japanese didn't seem nearly as faily as yesterday, though when it became apparent they spoke English quite well we spoke more and more in English (it's hard to go back once you've started somehow, lol).
So I eventually got back here about 7.30, went to the combini for a bento (I'm living on them, yes, I know ^^') and got soaked on the way back - it started bucketing it down with rain, and though I was only out in it for about 10 minutes, I got very wet. ^^'
Tomorrow - Matsumoto! Damn, the internet keeps cutting out and I need to find a phone number for the place I'm staying at. >:E
To be honest, it's unimpressive! It was crammed with people, there were no English signs and extremely limited English information, compared to a lot of other temples, and the temple itself was nothing to write home about. There was a nice collection of statues and paintings in a three-storeyed pagoda, but the only other noteworthy thing was the Key to Paradise. XD You go down some steps into a black dark corridor - you just keep your hand on the wall and keep going forward, and eventually you find this big metal thing on the wall, like a door knocker. Then you come up some steps and out. And... that's it. XD
So nagano hadn't taken me long! "I'm going to be back well in time for Shonen Club!" I thought to myself.
I wondered what to do for an hour or so - had a wander round the streets, nothing much of note; realised what I really, really wanted, was to sit outside with a beer and do some writing. But it's a bit weird, I didn't know where to go or even if that was the sort of thing you do in Japan, just go for a quiet drink on a Sunday afternoon! But eventually I came to this Indonesian sort of shop that had a roof cafe. "Is it OK to just have a beer?" I asked, and yes, that was fine! So they took me up to the roof and sat me down with this bunch of Japanese people who were doing the same, just having a drink. I was a little nervous - but it turned out to be awesome fun! They all spoke a little English, and two of them spoke pretty good English, and they'd travelled all over the place - all over Asia, Australia, and England too - they were having a meeting of their "Asia club" (like the Yokoyama club, haha) so I'm now a member! I got there about 3, my bus was at 5.20, but I didn't want to leave! Which I... almost never say, lol. XD I ended up missing that bus so we went for coffee, then they waited with me and waved me off. すごい楽しかった！ They liked English music, and we talked about anime and manga and dramas (Keita liked My Boss My Hero too XD), and my Japanese didn't seem nearly as faily as yesterday, though when it became apparent they spoke English quite well we spoke more and more in English (it's hard to go back once you've started somehow, lol).
So I eventually got back here about 7.30, went to the combini for a bento (I'm living on them, yes, I know ^^') and got soaked on the way back - it started bucketing it down with rain, and though I was only out in it for about 10 minutes, I got very wet. ^^'
Tomorrow - Matsumoto! Damn, the internet keeps cutting out and I need to find a phone number for the place I'm staying at. >:E
