More stupid moments brought to you by...

We got on a bus yesterday, headed for a town in the Japanese Alps. What we didn't realize was that there were not going to be any ATMs anywhere... We got there with about the equivalent of 80$ on us, realizing that this would pay for one night at this weird campground we were hoping to stay at (they had cabins - possibly with blankets) and one person's bus ride back to Takayama (the nearest town with ATMs). This of course meant we had no money for food... or anything else that might come up. We headed off to the park information desk (it was a National park) and found that the only places that accepted Visa were really expensive hotels... So now came the fun of deciding - do we waste $100 and go back to Takayama by bus and come back tomorrow? Or do we splurge and get a more expensive room. (I will note here that the first park ranger essentially laughed at us because we had only brought $80 with us... this is ridiculous I take it? Is it normal that people carry around hundreds of dollars when going hiking?? When we went back to the information booth to enquire about these 'expensive' hotels, we were greeted by a girl who was much more helpful and hooked us up with a place to stay.)

Anyway, we got some expensive room at a hotel.

It was worth it. I woke up this morning, opened the doors to our balcony and was staring up at these huge mountains hidden in morning clouds. We also had our meals included - dinner was ridiculous - I ate way too much and I'm not sure what half of it was. There's a name for the type of meal... ummmm... I don't know how to spell it so I won't try but it consists of many small dishes of various types of things... yeah, I can't even explain it very well. Breakfast was more of the same. So much food!

The owner of the hotel (at least that's what Ryan and I thought) happened to be a mountaineer guide and the lead for the mountain rescue team for the region. This guy had pictures of himself climbing everywhere in the world... it was pretty crazy. There was even a climbing wall set up for him to practice on in the kitchen! He gave us some advice on where to go hiking today.

This morning we went on a couple of different hikes, alas the snow kept us from going very far up the mountains. We just didn't have the right shoes for it. I really liked the park... it was pretty cool and the hotel we stayed at was pretty crazy (it seemed like whenever we'd leave our room, we'd come back to find a new pot of warm tea waiting for us or that the room had been cleaned or rearranged for sleeping or lounging.)

We're now unsure what to do with our last 'free' day before we have to head back to Tokyo and our train pass runs out. We've been throwing around some ideas... I still want to do that fish market in Tokyo!

It seems crazy to think that this time next week I'll be back home and have to start looking for a new job.

*Edit* Ryan and I just called home for the first time in weeks... It was strange... I spoke with my sister who needs to stop house-sitting our place due to a family emergency and Ryan's parents will now take over the task of watering my plants (apparently I have flowers on my balcony! Woo!) and feeding the cats. (Thanks mom & dad for the e-mail - I called her as soon as I heard.)