Our trip to Japan was Tom's ambition. The only thing I could think of, apart from experiencing an intriguingly different culture, that I really wanted to see apart from Hiroshima, were the snow monkeys. I came for the snow monkeys, and we've always said "see what you can , while you can - while you have your health and mobility". I just never realised that I could have mobility one day, and have it compromised for I-don't-know-how-long, the next. So, a 35 minute walk on tracks in the snow for a healthy and fit person, I decided, would be too much of a risk for me. Still, off to Nagano we came. Our Shinkansen on the way out had hardly any stops and took just over an hour. We saw beautiful snow draped landscapes on our way out, and enjoyed the crisp fresh air on arrival. We pottered around the streets and walked through a department store, spending a lot of time in their fresh produce section, having great difficulty identifying many of the vegetables. We purchased a few snack items and the cashier gave us a voucher for a free coffee (she had no pocky) so we sat down and had a coffee each in their cafe. We booked our seats for our return trip, realising there could be a demand for seats to Tokyo on a Friday afternoon, then found a cafe for a toasted sandwich (hot dog for Tom) lunch. The cafe was full of people with laptops plugged in, working away. Our Shinkansen on the way back stopped at 10 stations and took 2 hours. The urban area of Tokyo seemed to go forever. Chari - I keep forgetting to tell you - yesterday morning we saw a cat cafe - it had climbing things, and scratching posts, and there was a cat sitting and staring out the window!! One of the other places the tour guide said they could spend their nights if they missed the last train home - a comic cafe, where you can sit and read comics all night! A lot of the eateries/waiting rooms have smoking rooms - little glasses in areas for smokers to go to. Workers can put their computers/phones/tablets/briefcases down on a table, go off for a cigarette, and come back. Nobody touches other people's belongings. Toilet story for today: public toilet, water music playing..... I sat still for too long, and the cubicle light went out, leaving me in the dark. I moved and it came back on.