My Trip to Japan - Days 4 & 5

Thursday, October 16th 2008

Thursday morning we headed checked out of the hotel and headed back to the Nagano train station.  Do you recall that Nagano was the host of the 1998 Winter Olympic games?  

Today would be the first day that I would get the opportunity to ride on one of Japan's famed "bullet trains" which are not only larger and more comfortable than conventional trains, but are as the name suggests, much faster.  We reached speeds of around 300/kph or 188 mph. 

Here I am (wearing my Seiko Premier) sitting next to a journalist from the Singapore watch magazine WOW.  He was an extremely nice fellow, and I helped him with some photos for his article, so I can add a the photo credit to my resume.  :)   

The trip did give me an opportunity to do some work on my laptop, but I did manage to take some interesting photos along the way.  At one point I looked up from my laptop to see the following photo out my window:

I quickly got up an found one of the Seiko folks and excited asked, "hey, is that an active volcano?!?!"  "Oh...yes it is" was the unimpressed answer I got.  Clearly seeing an active volcano in Japan isn't a big deal when you live in Japan, but it was my first.

A few more shots I got during the scenic train ride:

When we arrived at Shizukuishi we were taken by car to the nearby Seiko Instruments facility in Shizukuishi and did our final factory tour for the Seiko media experience:

We were served more traditional Japanese cuisine:

During dinner we were treated to a performance of traditional Japanese folk music.  The instruments they're playing are somewhat similar to the American banjo, but are made from the skin of a dog:

After dinner I headed back to my room for a good night's sleep.  

DAY 5 IN JAPAN
Friday, October 17th 2008

The next morning I woke up and got to see my first view of the resort from the window of my room in daylight:

The ski center is next to the hotel - when snow is on the ground, you can go here to catch a cable car up the slope. 

As you can see in these pictures, the northern region of Japan is normally cooler this time of the year (though it hit 70 degrees F on this day and was just beautiful)  so the leaves were already bursting with Fall color. 

I had to take the opportunity to get a wrist shot while I was on my walk.  :)

Here's the exterior of the Prince Hotel:

I walked by this field of beautiful flowers:

I found this pond not far along the trail:

It looked to be well stocked with fish:

Then I found the driving range - in the summer they set up a a place to hit balls along one of the ski slopes that won't be otherwise used again until winter. 

I then decided to make my way over to the golf center - I might just have time enough to get in nine holes before the morning meeting session!

I went into the pro shop to see about renting some clubs and playing.  Though my Japanese is severely limited, I was able to gather that the course requires a minimum of a twosome to play.  :(  But at least I was able to walk this stunning course and get some photos.  The first thing I saw entering the course was this Seiko clock - reminiscent of the Rolex clock you'll see on the practice green at Pebble Beach.  :)

My camera lens does not do this sloping fairway justice - it was was absolutely breathtaking:

Nearly every point on the course offered an excellent view of this mountain:  

I had to get one more wrist shot with the mountain in the background: