Nagano City II

The city is surrounded by pretty mountains, here just outside of town, across the main river

A veiw from downtown - hills are very close (though always in a haze)

So, one night, we went out for a very Japanese evening - first, dinner at McDonalds:

Then bowling at a 60 lane (!) bowling alley

One of the boys throwing the heavy ball down the lane

Then we wandered around the Toys-R-Us !

And had dinner near the Hard-Off, a store that sells who-knows-what, but interesting English, anyway.

We also went to one of the giant kaiten sushi places that are common in Japan, where the sushi is on a little conveyor that runs around the room - you pick off what you'd like - very convenient and on weekends filled with hundreds of families and children.  But, they have some interesting sushi here !

Starting with Sushi Hamburger !!  Very popular with kids (gross).

And sushi ham !

or pudding

and cake !

These are bikes outside a super market under my Japanese class room; none of these are locked, though recent crime waves in Japan have started to make people think about such things.

Finally, an old lady bent over from long hard work in the rice fields of yesterday (actually today, as you can still see them work in the country-side.)