AGE: Hakuba, Japan

We are just finishing up our first week in Japan in the town of Hakuba at a Bed and Breakfast called “Santana B&B.” The Santana B&B is owned by a native New Zealander and his Japanese wife. The inn gets great light all day and is really warm and sunny.
While there are many things about Japan that are quite different, we haven’t had much of a culture shock since most of the other people at the lodge are from Australia or New Zealand and speak English.

The local mountain, Hakuba Goryu, is a short walk from the lodge. It’s so close that we can ski right down the street back to the inn. The mountains are called the Japanese Alps, and the mountain has plenty of beautiful views.The town of Hakuba is in a prefecture called “Nagano.” Nagano is where the Winter Olympics were held in 1998, and Hakuba Goryu held several events. Here I am trying to navigate us around Hakuba.
We went into Hakuba last night and had dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant. Every part of town supplies a beautiful view of the mountains.At the restuarant, we sat on tatami mats and tried to guess which meal would taste the best based on the Japanese symbols on the menu. Tom, on the right, ordered a squid pancake with a side of mutton that he had to cook himself. I think I got some kind of chicken fried pork. The meal also came with a bunch of little sides. At one point I ate something that I thought was a piece of pear, but ended up being some kind of raw seafood chunk that tasted like foot fungus.

We are about to leave for an old fashioned minshuku that we'll be at for the next week in a small village called "Otari." It's only about 30 minutes from Hakuba, but I think the experience will be quite different. Hope everyone is doing well!