Nagano

So I'm taking an overnight bus to Tokyo tonight, and then heading to Nagano with my friend's family to visit the grandparents. Nagano is where they head the Winter Olympics 11 years ago, just in case you were wondering where you'd heard the name before. My friend's family is worried that it might be too far into the countryside for me to enjoy it, but I think I'll actually like it more because of that. I live in the middle of the busy, noisy part of Kyoto, so it'll be fun to take some time off for a change.
I am able to go on this trip because of a week long break they have over here called Golden Week. It's pretty much a bunch of national holidays lined up around one another, so schools and some companies decide just to give everyone the full week off. I'm glad I'm able to get out of Kyoto, not that I'm sick of it or anything, but this is our only significantly long break while we're here, so it would be kind of a waste not to go somewhere. I'm also glad I'll be able to the whole Japanese-family thing with the grandparents and everything. Although I'm living in Japan, I'm living by myself, so there are still a lot of aspects that I don't get to see a whole lot.
It'll also be cool getting to see a little bit of Tokyo, since Kyoto is so different. I'll ofcourse be making it up there again sometime, so next is when I plan on saying hi to all of my Tokyo area friends. I only have a day or so this time, and I'll be with my friend's family, so it might be kind of a hassle to try to meet a bunch of people.
Here are some pictures to keep you guys entertained while I'm gone, since I probably won't be able to update my blog for a week.
These first two pictures are from Nijo Castle last Saturday. It was raining, which actually kind of worked out for us. It wasn't nearly as crowded as it might have been otherwise, allowing us to take better pictures.




This was a breakfast set from this cafe that specializes in toast. I got the breakfast set, which came with plain buttered toast (but thick toast), a hardboiled egg, just as much orange juice as you see in the picture, and a coffee.



Which kind of underwear should I get? Spiderman or the green face guy?


I also found two vegetarian restaurants. I'll have to take my friend Chuck to one of them (he writes his name in kanji, 茶ック, because he loves tea and studies tea ceremony, the character he uses means tea).

However, if Chuck and I decide to bring two more people, we have to call in advance....