hisashiburi desu ne

"It's been a while, hasn't it," is the basic translation of this title. I've spend the majority of my time since my last post preparing for my winter vacation trip, and then on the trip itself. I have many many pictures from all of our touristy travels, and far too many to post on this site. For mine and the readers sake i'll split up our journey in as chronological order as possible. But first the briefest of introductions: First, Roopali came, we slept, saw some monkeys, and fought over chestnuts. Then Shana (my sister) and her friend/my other little sister Jaime came, very shortly followed by my buddy, and yet another girl, Alex. I'll comment with the pictures to inform you on how it all went down...

That's right, those are monkeys taking a bath. This is in Yudanaka Onsen in Nagano Prefecture. I'm not sure words can really describe how cute they were. I have lots more pictures, but I don't want to overwhelm you.
Roopali, unaware of the evil monkeys lurking in the background.
Aaron observing the mighty Japanese Alps.
Power cables and snowy misty mountains. How Japanesey.

Aaron thinking hard in Ueno Park, Tokyo.
Roopali steps into the shoes of Anpan-man, the second foreigner to do so illustrated in this blog.
Shmoo ("Shana") with a little panda balloon. One of many instances when Shmoo was about 5 years old. If there is one thing that anyone can decisively say about Japan though, its that its packed full of cute and little things designed to make cute and little kids look even cuter and littler.
Here's Jaime, looking like she's sulking and pouting, though I don't think she was actually doing either.
Here's Jaime shoving her first onigiri (rice triangle, often with something fishy in the middle. a staple of convenient store food in Japan) into her mouth. I think all the girls loved onigiris, though got a little sick of them after a few days.
I believe this was the first time the non-Indian girls had seen a toilet like this, so Shmoo took a picture. They've ceased to surprise me at this point, though I can't say I enjoy them either.
Here's a few of us at a shrine half way between Ueno and Asakusa in Tokyo. I taught them the bow bow clap clap bow routine, which we would continue to practice throughout our trip.
In case you were wondering if Tokyo was full of Shrines and open spaces, here's shiny Shinjuku, the shiniest part of Shiny Tokyo (which is pretty shiny). We spent very little time here, but did go to an internet cafe, which in Japan means you rent a private booth that has a computer and tv and get access to a varied selection of books/magazines/movies. weird and kind of sleazy, but apparently quite useful for a few hour nap after missing the last train home.
Here's the full entourage in front of our hostel in Tokyo. The hostel was half decent but it was a little out of the way and had a curfew, as is the case with many hostels in Tokyo.
Here's pretty Alex smiling, and Aaron attempting to translate/explain the menu to the best of his ability. I must've strained my brain doing this a hundred times on this trip. And let me tell you, three of the four girls on this trip have an invested interest in nutrition and the exact science and origin behind the food they eat, making it necessary for me to try and explain things that I had already given up trying to understand myself. This was a daily routine for the entire length of their stay.

There's much more to say and show, but I'd like to put things up in installments. It'll be like the days when authors had their works published in daily or weekly segments and got paid per word. Only this is the internet, and being obtuse and wordy doesn't get me any more money. In fact, noone is paying me at all. Except the Japanese government, who in fact has made all this possible. Thank you Japanese tax payers!
For now,
Aaron