CmWebb

Kanojo wa daikan ashi ga arimasu. ( or something like that.) She has legs like a daikan. Hmm what else...Ore wa goshtai desu. (suwa ben) I am tired. Well I am afraid that that is pretty much my entire vocabulary. Chris.

When I was living in Takasaki I had an entire apartment building go up behind where I was living. Talk about noisy. The worst part was that they worked in shifts so that I could hear the jack hammers going at 3:00 in the morning. It used to drive me up the wall. I heard that they weren't allowed to actually make such a din after 10:00 but nobody said anything.

Just a quick warning. They are pretty serious about the three month thing. So if you have renewed your licence since you have been in Japan and it doesn't have a original date of issue you'll have to get some proof from your home transportation ministry. I had some friends who forgot and they had to make a new appointment, which postponed everything another few weeks.

There was no cheese I'm afraid but other than that every thing went pretty smooth. I was shuttled around between about 3 or 4 different windos of course. All in all it took about two hours. Chris

I went to take my driving test and discovered that since Feb. 1st Canadians don't have to take the test. Yeah. So if you are from Canada driving around on an expired int. licence you have no excuse not to change it now. Chris.

A few years ago I heard that it was possible to do cabin to cabin skiing (cross-country) in the Niko area and I was wondering if anyone knew anything about it. Chris.

Hey, I am in learning process myself too. I haven't taken a lesson yet though, perhaps I should. I`ve just been going cross-country skiing, climbing to the stop of something and then trying to get down it. Lots of fun. Chris

Thanks for all the info. I'll check those places out. Chris

Me again...I`ll add to my post. If you know of a store in the Matsumoto/Suwa area that would be great. Chris

Just a quick question. Does anyone know of any stores that sell telemark/cross-country ski equipment? Chris

The monkey na they were just eating branches. Freaked me out a bit though. I had been hearing cracking sounds for a while but didn`t really pay attention and then I saw a baby monkey and then his mother and then...so anyway all of a sudden I noticed that I was surrounded by about 50 monkeys. They didn't seem so interested in me but I decided to have my lunck somewhere else though. Chris

A quick question about the new licence law. I have been using an international licence for about two years now but have heard that there is a new law and that now after a year if you wnat to keep on driving you have to switch you licence over to like...a real one. Which of course involves taking a test. I was just wondering if anyone has and info on this. Chris

Hi Leslie, Well in Nagano you can go skiing at Snow Harp, which is the olympic course and quite hilly I hear. Last week I went to Kamikochi. The road in is closed in the winter but a lot of people go in to go hiking or snow shoeing. So I noticed that the road was basically hard packed snow and about 8 feet wide. I thought hmm I could probably skate here for about 20 km. But it is not a proper trail and if it was right after a snow it would not be good. Oh ya and a few years ago I went skiing on a golf course in Fukishima. It was groomed for skating but certainly not exciting. I wish I could re

Ya I guess I wasn't so specific. So I am learning to tele ski and I ski on a back-country tele ski cross. Which is to say they are fairly straight with out too much of the hour glass thing going on. I use a cable binding but back-country boots so they are a bit soft. I am hoping to pick up some hard boots but I am not sure where. I have mosty been skiing on hiking trails and mountain roads that are closed for the winter though I have skied up a few small mountains. Last week I went to Kamicochi. Good View. A lot of monkeys. I am hoping to go to Norikura sometime this winter as I hear there is

Well Winter is here yeay! If any one is interested in Back-Country skiing drop me a line. I live in Nagano. Chris.