After I had had my fill of snowboarding, I decided to try my hand at hitch-hiking the next leg of the trip. Soon after arriving in Japan I met a French student who had travelled all around Japan by way of hitch-hiking; he said it was a perfectly safe and cheap way to travel, and remarkably easy to get picked up if you knew the right places to go. Some of my students agreed it would be safe, but were more doubtful about fidning easy rides.

I figured I would try my luck and attempt to hitch from Hakuba to Nagano City (a relatively short distance of about one hour by car). The night before I obtained a cardboard beer carton from a nice bartender which served as an excellent sign. I then had my Japanese friend write Nagano in Kanji for the poster, alongside the roman and hirigana versions that I could write myself (the Japanese writing system is horrendously complicated...not going to get into that here though). I set up shop by the side of the road that led towards the freeway that eventually ended up in Nagano city. My plan was to tough it out for an hour, after which point I would take the bus. Luckily, no buses (or money) was necessary, as four passed cars and 20 minutes later I was cruising towards Nagano with my new friend Sen in his sporty Toyota van. At first he was blasting the J-pop, but after picking me up he cracked out his favour gaijin CD....none other than KISS' Greatest Hits. I did not protest (I attempted to explain to him that I had seen them in concert before...not sure if he understood). He spoke a bit of English, which, when added to my smaller bit of Japanese, allowed us to have a limited conversation. About an hour later, he dropped me off right in the centre of the city.

My travelling friend Duffy (refer to previous journal) had decided to spend another day in Hakuba skiing and then head to Nagano in the evening. He had reserved a hotel in advance, and, as I was also in need of accomodation, we decided to share a room at the Holiday Inn (I figured we couldn't go wrong). So that's where I headed first. I wasn't allowed to check into my room until later, so I left my bags there and headed out to do some exploring.

Nagano's most famous tourist attraction is a place called Zenkoji Temple. It is a particularly holy place due to an ancient legend. It goes like this: an impious woman was washing her clothes in a river when an ox appeared. As it walked by, a piece of cloth was caught on it's horn. As the woman was as stingy as she was impious, she chased the ox for hours to retrieve the cloth. It eventually led her to the temple where she fell asleep. The ox then came to her in a dream, revealed himself to be the image of the Buddha and disappeared. The woman saw this as a mirale and became a pious believer. People now use the idiom, "I followed an ox to Zenkoji" to mean that something good happened unexpectedly. And no, I did not memorize this whole story word for word....it is an excerpt from the Lonely Planet. I did, however, buy a door curtain with an image-based account of the tale.

I've included a few pictures I took at the temple. It was very busy when I was there, and for good reason. It really quite an amazing place; the inside is particularly impressive, but photos are not allowed. I found out later that many thousands of people showed up at midnight (it was New Year's Eve) to pray and bring luck for the new year.

Duffy and I celebrated a bit differently. New Years is a religious / family-based time for most Japanese people, so there aren't many parties going on; we managed to find a few smaller gatherings though. First we went to a little place that was showing the News Year Pride and K1 fights (the Japanese equivalent to UFC). This place eventually turned into a gaijin pub as more foreigners came in. I met a bunch of people from BC, including one guy who had first come over ten years ago, after the Kobe earthquake, to build houses (no longer a lucrative industry for foreigners in Japan). From there we headed to another spot recommended by the guidebook. I had met the owner (aka "Shiggy") earlier as I was walking by during the day, so we were warmly received. This place was also quiet for New Years, only a few patrons, including a few Japanese, a Canadian from Victoria and a guy originally from Burma. That's where we rang in the new year, complete with complementary champagne and soba noodles, a good luck dish (long noodles represent long life). We hit one more place before the night was up, where I met even more Canadians...these ones from Vancouver. This was strange as up to that point I had met only a few Canadians....I guess we were all drawn to the cold.