11:07pm
Today we were up and about at around 7:45 and hung out talking with Denise until Ito-sensei and Ryoko-sensei came over around 8:50. While they had coffee w/Denise we met upstairs and had a team meeting with ice cream cones. At 10 Yumi-san, the Yoshidas, and Noriko showed up. Laurel and I rode with Yumi and we all stopped at the 7/11 for snacks/drinks for the day, then started the drive up to Mt Zao. It was a lonnnng (but beautiful) ride, and Yumi was a bit shy and didn't say much, but when we did talk it was cool :)
At the top of Zao we were greeted with fog, rain, wind, and cold :) We walked over to the lookout point to admire all the white foggy nothingness and headed inside to peruse the gift shop. After a little bit we drove back down a little ways to "Liza" (the ski lodge) and had slightly strange looking oven-baked pizzas which were delicious.
Then we headed to nearby Zao Onsen which was totally amazing - there was an indoor pool that was really hot and then an outdoor pool (a much nicer temperature) which was about neck-deep when sitting on your bum. It was surrounded with blue flowers and Japanese maple trees and some bigger-leaved trees I didn't recognize, and a snail climbing the perpehreal rocks :) We sat on the rimming rocks for awhile and headed out very light-headed and warm (after running into Yuuri-chan, Taiga-kun, and their mom :)
The drive back down was nice, I thought a lot and Yumi seemed to take the scenic route, which was very pretty. They took us to a giant touristy store and everyone browsed around there for awhile, and then another touristy store that had a lot of cool quirky things. I had to break into my food money that I'm supposed to get on Thurs so hopefully I can hang on.
Outside the store we spotted a huge group of "Vannings" and their proud owners standing around like they were having some kind of Vanning convention. Needless to say we had to take some photos ;D
We came back to the house with Denise and chatted for a bit; walked over to the Kamin and got dinner (and gelatto ice cream courtesy of Denise) and then played a cool dice game she had.
Then we settled to the business of going to bed. Which I should do. Now.
feeling slightly achey, hope I don't get sick..
Oh, I almost forgot we found kittens! Heard a mewing and investigated around the back of the house and found 4 babies - 3 orange and one gray - and left them there in case their mama comes back.
