The Dynamic Duo

We had 5 days off last week here in Japan, and we and my parents and little brother took Linc on his first trip to Nagano.  This was actually UltraBob’s idea; He thought it’d be nice to visit and spend time in his most favorite area in Japan.  We wanted to avoid traffic jams as much as possible, so we left about 5 in the morning, heading down to Yatsugatake area in Yamanashi prefecture first. 

Linc enjoyed seeing cows and sheep on a farm (Japanese) there, walked all over, and had some licks of a really tasty soft cream cone. 

In the afternoon, we visited a café in the same area called Yatsugatake Club (Japanese) which is owned by a famous Japanese TV personality.  He was the MC for a quiz show that my brother and I used to watch.  This cafe (or should I call it a restaurant) serves great fruit tea which I’d definitely recommend anyone who’s in Japan and has a chance to come down near by.  The restaurant is surrounded by a huge garden which the owner created with his friends taking a few years.  There are lots of trees and flowers all over, and you can see he takes good care of it now as well.  Also he has an art gallery right next to the café part, so you can enjoy some art at the same time.  I just loved the fruit tea.  UB had a glass of sangria (editor’s note: meh.), and others shared the tea and some cakes. 

We stayed at a pension located in front of Shirakaba lake in Nagano that night.  Linc was worn out and slept pretty good. 

Next morning we had a very nice long walk around the lake.  It was a peaceful morning by the lake. 

Before heading down to a hotel (Japanese) for the second night, we stopped by the Maruyama coffee shop (Japanese) which was one of the main things UB and I wanted to do in this trip.  If you are a coffee lover in Japan, you might have heard of this pretty good coffee roaster.  We tasted the coffee and brought some beans home.  The hotel room was interesting; it had two stories: the upstairs had futons and tables, and downstairs there was a private bath with a garden attached and a massage chair.  We also rode a mountain cable car that leads to a public hot spring located up on the hill next to the hotel.  This was quite exciting.

Next day we walked around the streets of Karuizawa and drove to an American styled diner (japanese) in Nagano city just to try their hamburger that UB had seen in a magazine and wanted to try.  The burger was pretty alright, but the service was really good.  The manager was passionate about American culture and talked with UB and me for a while.  Already it was time to go back home, we got into a terrible traffic jam and it took us about 7 hours to get back (usually it is about a 3 hour drive).  Linc was again very cooperative.  Where to next?