We headed out to Nagano on a shinkansen fast train. It only took a hour to get to Nagano and then an half hour train ride to our Hotel. Nagano is really stretched out along the Sai River and so we ended up south east of the train station. Upon our arrival we had to wait an hour to get into our room so we took a walk to a small shrine a short distance away. The lower shrine was tiny and there was a series of three flights of stairs to get up to the larger shrine. Needless to say that after 193 stairs, our legs were stretched. We had higher expectations of the "Resort and Spa." Multiple times we had to ask ourselves, why? One thing we did not accept is the so called "mountain view." Yes there were mountains past the parking lot and past the highway and on the other side of the town and river. I went down to get then to change our room so we could see the mountains that were less than a mile away.
Great flowers at the Toyama train station
Fountains
Statues
These were for the drug sellers. Door to door pharmacists that provided family health care for 300 years in Toyama
It looks like a blister pack of pills that one would find today!
The Drug Peddlers always gave gifts to the kids
Large statue
Very gothic!
Holding up the ice cream cone
Our train
Not as futuristic as some of the fast trains
Place tiny feet here
Zooming along in the train
Piping water from a spring?
The Sea of Japan
Rolling hills
Mountains
We are in Nagano
Heading to the hotel
Cliffs
Large water control building
The Hotel, off limits to us until 3 PM
A very loud Oriental Reed Warbler
An old style mud building
A small shrine near the hotel
Kind of forgotten
Lovely flowers about
A very large and uneven set of stairs
Looking down
A trail too hairy to walk
A cemetery
Another set of stairs
163 stairs to the top
A bit comical
Grrrrrrr I am the red faced big nose man!
Great view from up on top
A serious looking horn!
It is hard to make out but this is a set of stars
Sewerage!
Man and Woman
Finally in our second room and here is our view
It has been 1 year and 359 days since we began our Migration
