Japan Day Nine - Part One

So we woke up from our beautiful hotel room

Since it was so beautiful we had freaked out about it costing a lot more than 80 bucks, but we went down the the foyer and the lovely man, took our 80 bucks with a smile

We'd deliberately woke up early as it was going to be a big day! There were plans. The first was to go on a swan boat. The last time I was in Japan I lacked a boyfriend and dreamt of the day I could go on a swan boat with someone other than myself, luckily Ben filled the brief and was a happily obliging participant!

we had a few options

but in the end went with the traditional

The lovely man cleaning our seats, ahhh the hospitality that is Japan!

One dream come true! he he he

The next plan for the day was to go to the top of Mount Haruna! We spied a cable car the day before and it fitted in well with the laziness

We also got to go on a nice walk on the way there!

a few minutes later and we're on top of the mountain, woot!

At one point Ben and I got seperated, I'd like to blame Ben here but since he's been gone five weeks now with his work and I miss him dearly I'm too loved up to say anything bad about the boy :P

So I took this opportunity to take some happy snaps

Ahhh beautiful Japanese nature!!

An hour later Ben rocks up scratched and bleeding. Turns out the path he took which he thought would be a five minute detour from the main path, led him down the mountain and almost falling off the mountain judging from his injuries and tales.
Ben had eventually made it to the bottom and then had to catch the cable car up to the top to meet me

No time to dwell, a quick wash off in the freezing lake for Ben and we were off on our next adventures!

read more "Japan Day Nine - Part One"

Japan Day 8 Lake Haruna (Part Two)

So we went up the lift and headed to our door, took us about five minutes to even get in, damn keys + door knob combo.  Anyway when we did get it coordinated we were pretty blown away by what we say...

it was definitely the prettiest hotel I've ever seen/stayed in!

cute toilet slippers

and this was the view from our window.  Mt Haruna not all obscured by the front hotel!

This part of the trip I was just deliriously happy and couldn't be more in love with Japan.I had spent time with friends, managed to make it onto the last bus and stumbled upon this beautiful hotel in a beautiful area.  Definitely time to look around! 

Such a pretty place! We decided to head back to our hotel and relax for the night

Early dinner!

we got to tuck into those amazing bentos Teruko had made for us

It's one of the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, I dunno her secret

Hopefully one day she'll share

Next thing we get a call on the phone in our room

the man from the foyer said "6 make bed"

I told Ben and we were a little perplexed, surely they weren't going to wake us up at 6 in the morning and make our beds, we decided to set our alarms just in case. It was close to 6 already, so in case he meant 6pm we decided to leave them to there thing and find the communal bath in the hotel to freshen up

It was Ben's first time at an onsen (bath house) and I tried to remember my first time and how daunting it seemed to share a bath and be naked in front of a room full of strangers and also make sure you follow all the right steps. So I ran through the steps as best as I could and left poor Ben to walk into the male bathhouse by himself whilst I ventured through the female curtains.

The hotel's onsen was really pretty with huge glass windows so you could soak, whilst soaking up the amazing views of the lake!

We came out 20 minutes later and I found Ben in a much more relaxed state to when I left him. So we were less than a minute back in our hotel room when we get a knock on the door and two gentlemen come in. And yes, they made our beds! Eek,  really hope they weren't waiting for us to come back!

I've never ever heard of this, coming in at an evening to prepare your bed, business but we started to doubt that the hotel would only cost us 80 dollars! At the end of the day we weren't too concerned and just made good use of our pretty surroundings :P

Dressing up as you do!

read more "Japan Day 8 Lake Haruna (Part Two)"

Japan Day 8 Lake Haruna (Part 1)

So we woke up to our last day in Tatebayashi and got to have breakfast with Mami and my old supervisor, Aoki, which was super nice!

Ben and I with Aoki!

The breakfast itself was quite strange even by Japanese standards, not to say that Japanese breakfast's are weird, just different.  This particular breakfast was the Japanese version of a Western breakfast, I think...

Eggs, croissants, pastries, all pretty standard but then...Japanese curry and yakisoba (fried noodles) which altogether, just didn't sit right in our stomachs, plus more, non-milk, milk beverages

After Breakfast we said goodbye to Aoki, who had crept away from her School duties to join us, thanks Aoki! Mami, Ben and I headed off to the acrade for puricula!

Big Eyed Puricula makes a return, he he!

Then we said our final goodbyes to Mami :( And we're off to see Teruko, my favourite teacher I use to work with back in the day.   The last time I saw Teruko she had a tiny baby, named Haruna, in her arms, Haruna is now the oldest of three! Time flies, eek!

It's really fun to play with kids because they don't understand/care that you can't understand what they're saying, so they just keep repeating the word, usually slowly, loudly and more frequently :P Its amazing how much you can communicate without an understanding of words too. I think we lose that when we get older and instead gain an embarrassment of not understanding, which really only limits us in the end.

Teruko is the loveliest lady and she said, although she doesn't think her English is 100% she is all for just giving it a go, brilliant, I should be inspired to do the same with Japanese!

Because we had not long eaten, Teruko was kind enough, to pack up her amazingly delicious lunch into the cutest bento boxes for us! She also made sure we would be on the right train to catch the last bus to Lake Haruna, where we were headed for the night.  I asked, if her daughter Haruna was named after the lake, but I think it's just a pretty name :)

So our visit went quickly and next thing, there were more goodbyes and we're on the train bound north for Lake Haruna!

Well train than bus! Turns out we had 10 minutes to hop off the train, locate the bus terminal and then find our bus. Which is normally pretty simple, but when you can't speak/read Japanese it can be a bit more tricky. Since I sort of knew my way around, we found the bus depot pretty quickly but then we needed to know what number bus to hop on. We went to the desk and had a very intense conversation. Ben finally worked out the lady was worried for us, because that was the last bus and we couldn't get back home, until the morning. So after lots of 'no worries' were exchanged (dai jo bo!) She pointed to the bus and we jumped on, smiling that the travel gods had smiled upon us again!

My plan when we got to Lake Haruna was to camp but when we actually got to lake Haruna,

Ben and I muttered something like this..

"OH my, isn't it beautiful...lets find a hotel!"

They couple of hotels that we could work out were hotels, further up street, looked mighty pricey. Using my deductive skills, I suggested we go for the hotel that was slightly behind the place, right on the lake, I thought it might be a bit cheaper for having slightly tainted views :P Ben was in agreeance and we rocked up.

Again the communication issues emerged but Ben, by this stage had perfected the dodgey, Westerner sign language moves and we somehow  managed to get ourselves a room at what we thought was a steal at 80 bucks for the night, for the two of us!

Stay tuned for our room!

read more "Japan Day 8 Lake Haruna (Part 1)"