It was a glorious overcasted day today in Tokyo, which made our trek to the Shinjuku bus station all the more comfortable. We arose from our capsule and emmidietly headed off to the bus station, after my morning soak of course. Right when we got to the subway station, we were greeted by 2 english speaking travellers. They noticed that we were canadian because of the canadian flag patch I was sporting on my bag (thanks mom). One of them was from Saskatchewan and the other was from South Africa, and both were english teachers in the Japanese Alps area. Lucky for us, they were also heading to the same bus station, so they let us follow them. It was such a pleasure not having to try to figure out our own way, and just follow them blindly to the station. Of course they were very friendly, telling us all sorts of interesting tidbits about japan and teaching here.

From Tokyo we headed off to Nagano. Deena and I were both very excited to get out of the big city. Tokyo was really fun but very similar to Toronto in terms of it being a giant city with shopping centres and neon lights. We were both glad to leave the hustle and bustle of the city and get some fresh air. The busride to Nagano was breathtaking. The bus winded around mountains, across valleys and through clouds. The Mountains were beautifully arranged (thanks god/buddah/allah/zappa) and covered with very green, lush trees with clouds billowing out. The bus took a 10 minute break along the way and we took the oppratunity to sit outside and breathe in the fresh mountain air as we watched the clouds seep from the forests. Shortly afterwards we arrived in Nagano and were relieved to find that the city`s air was nice and fresh and there was a cool breeze with almost no apparent humidity. There were also no skyscrapers making the moutainous surroundings a pleasure to look at (we get a great view from the hotel room window) and it was very quiet. So quiet in fact, people seemed to move in slow motion compared to the hecticity in Tokyo. There were still billboards and personholes (because manholes just isn`t PC anymore) advertising that the 1998 winter games are/were here. Unfourtunely there weren`t any [visible] olympians lingering around anymore.
We decided to take the 2nd half of the day off from sightseeing, and just stroll around the main part of the city. We found a store along the way called Hard-Off, which was a used electronics store much like value village is a clothing store. This store puts Akihabara (Tokyo`s electronic district) to shame. It was full of old laser discs, old instruments, cameras, video games, comptuers and whole lot of other junk. My best find was on the 2nd floor, labeled the JUNK floor, where I had found an original Famicom system (the first japanese nintendo console) for only 1400 yen!! (which is roughly $14-$15). But alas, it was too big and delicate for me to bring with me on my trip, so hopefully I can find another one on my way back. I was also very tempted to buy a large synthesizer that I wanted eversobadly. I ended up purchasing a single computer speaker shaped like the *?* block from the mario brothers games. Can you tell that I`m a sucker for nintendo? Which reminds me of the night before in Tokyo. Deena and I were looking for some Yakitori when I noticed an arcade, and right in the window was a Mario Kart arcade game. I couldn`t not play it. I raced against Deena and kicked her sorry little ass. go me!!
After purchasing my speaker and Deena`s records, we went for some ramen and gyoza. It was damn delicious, with the returaunt priding itself in serving special salt from the x-mass islands which was tasty and not as salty as one would think… with it being salt and all.

I think thats all for today. I`m sooo sreepy right now and can`t wait to jump into my extremly soft bed and fall alseep to the japanese home shopping channel.

skate straight

avi