Kyoto to Nagano

Owing to a peculiar technological blip, the images today have all uploaded the wrong way around, so we are starting with the last thing, and working backwards! Though as a quick summary, we began today in Kyoto, and travelled to Nagano, where we shall be for a few days.

This evening we had a visit to another Onsen to relax in the lovely hot pools. We took a few wrong turns whilst looking for it, but got there in the end! There is quite a bit of snow on the ground in Nagano, as it is in a mountainous region, and played host to the winter olympics in 1998. This drain cover on the street commemorates this! 

And they also have drain covers commemorating apples, a regional produce.

Before visiting the Onsen, we explored Nagano town centre, and rather fortunately stumbled upon the last day of a festival of light and lanterns.

Down side streets there were little shrines with their own mini lantern displays.

This one had some lovely light up umbrellas.

And the big shrine at the top of the main street through town was glowing in colour-changing light.

There were loads of paper lanterns like these, that appeared to have been contributed by different businesses, children and adults. We think it was probably a competition, with a few hundred entries. 

We found a yellow panda- but can you tell which it is?

The lanterns were lined up in formation all along the high street.

Prior to our Nagano explorations, we checked into our hotel- Hotel Unicorn! It's a magical place- well, actually its a little bit odd! It's like it hasn't been redecorated since the 1960s, and has an old fashioned and slightly sleazy version of glamour that you might find in an old James Bond film- expect more cramped. it is currently being redecorated outside though, in a new delightful shade of yellow!

We'll share some more photos of the hotel tomorrow.

This is the high street just around the corner from the hotel, with festive lights aglow.

And these were some of the sights from the train window as we travelled to Nagano. Sorry this is a bit wonky- I was trying to take a picture of the mountains for about then minutes, and every time I pressed the shutter we went into a tunnel, or behind a fence- so I had to be quick, and in the end decided wonky would do!

Snowy roofs on the way.

And back in Kyoto, where the day began. We had a quick visit to the Kaleidoscope museum, and a walk through a popular indoor market, before getting on the train. 

Can you recognise any familiar faces in the kaleidoscope?

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the museum, other than of this screen as we arrived. It made a digital kaleidoscope out of the images in front of it- which at that time was us!

They had some fascinating kaleidoscopes for us to pick up and look through in the museum. So many pretty shiny patterns to look at! Beautiful as they were, there's only so much you can take in, so it was good for a short visit, but not a whole day out!

The teeth one below is a bit creepy!

We had a great time in Kyoto, but are looking forward to the adventures that Nagano has to offer.