Hi ho, it's off to Nagano we go!

The past month has been absolutely crazy busy! I don’t know what I was thinking, organizing so many things. I am definitely ready for a quiet month of lazy weekends and movie nights now though.

To spare detail overload, I was away every weekend in October (minus this one). I was actually in the same prefecture each time, but I was in a new part every weekend. Absolute insanity. Although Nagano, the prefecture I went to, is quite beautiful, so it really was a great way to spend my weekends out of Tokyo suburbs.

The first place I went was Karuizawa, which is a nice mountain getaway. Apparently, people flock there during the summer to escape the heat, and during the winter, for the gnarly ski slopes man. I went twice, first with Ryouta and his family, and then again with my ALT coworker, several Japanese teachers and the daughters of my Japanese coworkers.

About to go zip-lining with Ryouta and his family

Teachers and kids in Karuizawa

Obviously, fun times were had!

I also made it out to a quite little town called Ina, which is where one of my JET friends, Maya, is living. It’s definitely a tiny town, but it’s charming, and is nestled in a valley between the Japanese Alps mountain ranges.

I was even lucky enough to go to an ALT Canadian Thanksgiving party! All in all, it was really relaxed and nice to experience Japanese smalltown life.

Oh, and Nagano is famous for soba. And my body is always telling me that it’s time for soba!

Conveniently enough, we went to a soba festival