Stories from The Wonderful World of Bears

And that was my face after we cleared off some snow from the car only to find there was a whole lot more snow all around and on top of it. It took some shovels and even some scrapers to get the car clean and able to move. And we had to work fast because even as we worked more and more snow was coming down.

Freezing, we cleared off to a fish market where we were able to get fresh sushi and sashimi as well as other odds and ends of food. We even met some Tourism Japan people who were quite excited to see us and asked us a lot of questions.

Then we drove into this reserve near a big lake. Along the way there were many many frozen waterfalls and rivers. The pictures that we took here were all like postcards ! They were really magical and we felt we had walked into another winter wonderland.

After freezing our bodies, we went to the famous Wanko Soba where we each (the boys) ate more than 100 bowls of soba to qualify for the certificate and a wooden plaque certifying that we successfully completed the wanko challenge !

That night, we checked into the last hot springs resort of our trip. It was actually a group of three hotels, and you could walk into each one through tunnels and each one had its own special hot springs. By this day, we were already pretty dried from all the hot springs. They feel really good but you get dehydrated. But we had alot fun still....and there was a great breakfast provided too !