The Attractions of Nagano
...written on 02.24.04, @ 12:59 a.m.
Mon February 23, 2004
I mentioned earlier that over the break in February, Min and I took a couple of trips. On our first trip, we went back to Nagano and stayed at the same hotel that we visited in the summer with our landlords. We had a Japanese style room.
Before we went to the hotel however, Min seemed to be on a mission. No stopping was allowed as we scrambled our way up the mountain.
At the lower level, the roads were clear, but as we rode on, we had to follow the tire pits in the snow. The car wasn't "Four W D" as Min said, and just had regular tires with no snow chains.
I was wondering what the rush was about. I knew the sun was going down, but just as I was thinking, "couldn't we catch the sunset from somewhere else?", Min cried "Look!" and he pointed over my shoulder.
I turned to see Fuji san swathed in the rosy light of the setting sun. The snow covered fissures glowed like pink lava rolling down the sides of the mountain. It took my breath away. I wanted to stop and take a picture at that instant, but the incline made it impossible and Min sped upward and onward. By the time we got to a safe place, the volcano effect had dimmed and I got this shot, such a pale version of the first impression:
We made our way back down the mountain and into rush hour traffic. We got back to the hotel and then went for dinner at a Canadian steak house.
In the morning, we got up and went down to the lobby and found the book we had looked at before. It was a before and after picture book of the lake town and surrounding area. We had such fun last summer looking at this book. I even think it was at that point when we started falling in love. (When we got back to Ogaki, I called the hotel and got the book information to order it. I later gave it to Min as a souvenir)
Our plan to visit the local museums was thwarted by the day being a Monday. All were closed, so we went to Lake Suwako.
Back in the old days, Lake Suwako would completely freeze over and all the townspeople and visitors would get out on the lake for a good round of ice skating. With global warming however, most of the lake is slushy.
After the lake we went to a couple of shrines to see if we could find some religious artifacts for a friend, but didn't have any luck.
Before we got on the road for home, we had lunch at the same place as last year, where they serve big bowls of steaming vegetable soup. After eating, we just wanted to lay like cats in the sun streaming through the windows.
It was about a three hour drive back to Ogaki, and we were treated to a marvelous sunset!
