Our two nights at the Traditional Japanese hotel (Aburaya Tousen) in Yamanouchi included breakfast and dinner. When we checked in we chose where we wanted to eat and what menu we wanted to have. Yesterday for breakfast we had the breakfast buffet. But for this morning we chose to go to the brewery next door and have brunch. We had a wonderful meal including appetizers, then pasta, then a beef main dish and finally desert.

When we were done eating one of the staff at the hotel drove us to the train station. We took the local train (27 stops) to Nagano. In Nagano we had 11 minutes to buy our tickets and get to the platform for the bullet train to Tokyo. We made it with a couple of minutes to spare! In Tokyo we took the subway to the Roppongi District where we are tonight.

This evening we went to a nearby Jazz club, the Keystone Club for dinner and a show. You just never know what a local Jazz show is going to be like. Tonight was a lot of fun very high energy, Jazz, Salsa, 9 people crammed on the tiny stage. There was one Cuban and the rest were Japanese. Most of the singing was in Spanish with a bit of English. We had a great time.

Our two days in Yamanouchi are the only time we will be out in the country while we are in Japan. Today we went for a walk along the river that runs through the middle of Yamanouchi.

What prompted us to get up and get going was a blaring warning noise from our devices. Below you can see what my watch said. Nobody seemed to be particularly concerned but we went outside just to see if we could learn anything. The loud speakers outside were going off too. A few minutes later by googling we figured out that it was a false alarm.

We had another fabulous dinner with multiple amazing courses.

This morning before leaving Toyama we walked to the Toyama Museum of Art and Design. Toyama is a a beautiful city. I love Toyama’s architecture, parks and waterways.

Then we walked back to the Daiwa Raynet Hotel where we stayed. We picked up our bags and walked to the train station where we caught the bullet train going towards Tokyo. We got off in Nagano and took a local train to the mountain town of Yamanouchi where we are tonight.

Yamanouchi is known for its thermal springs. We are staying in a traditional Japanese hotel with our very own thermal hot tub right outside the room. Meals are included here and we had a fabulous multi course Japanese dinner.

This morning our first goal was to buy tickets for our train ride tomorrow. It took Duke almost an hour in line and at the counter but he accomplished the goal. We need to take two trains tomorrow, the bullet train and then a local train. It turns out that we can only buy the local train tickets when we get to our transfer point.

Then we walked to the Toyama Glass Art Museum. Along the way we detoured into the park around Toyama Castle.

The Toyama Glass Art Museum building is spectacular. The central atrium with the elevators and escalators goes up on a diagonal..

When we were ready to leave it was raining. We decided to walk back to the hotel in spite of the rain. Luckily we had loaner umbrellas from the hotel.

For dinner we were going to go back to the Yakiniku restaurant we ate at last night. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed. So we picked another restaurant at random. Since we can’t read any of the signs or menus it is always kind of a guessing game what we are going to eat.

This morning in Osaka I had the American breakfast again and Duke had the Japanese breakfast. He said it was very good.

Up until today we have been traveling west to east in Japan pretty much along the south coast. Today we took the train north and a little bit east to the north coast of Japan. We are now in the city of Toyama. Today was our longest train journey in Japan., two trains and two and a half hours.

For dinner we went to a Yakiniku restaurant (Japanese Barbecue) not far from our hotel and had great meat like we have had several places.

After dinner we went to Cotton Jazz Club and listen to a fabulous female pianist. The audience was just us and one other guy.