I was once told that I would never see any "bubbling beads" ( a reference to K1 media) in Japan and therefore I would consider today quite significant in that the first Nexus 310 filter was deilvered and installed in Yamakoshi.

After meeting with Mark Gardner for a couple of beers last night I managed to sleep a bit better and didn't wake up until just before 6am.  When I did there was a glorious sunrise outside.  My room looks toward the mountains so it is great to be able to see what the weather looks like in that direction.

Knowing that there was likely to be the rare opportunity of a blue sky I was keen to get to Yamakoshi as quick as possible.  I needed to get some good snow pictures for a project and there would be no guarantee that I would get another chance of the contrasting bright blue sk against the crisp white snow.  It is also ideal to get such things out of the way before guests arrive as they are obviosuly much more interested in koi.

Well once again my first nights sleep was pretty much unsuccessful, I'm going to have to investigate other options for flights that arrive in the morning rather than evening, as this used to be much better.  Anyway at leat it wasn't a problem getting up this morning and having watched dawn rise over the mountains from the hotel window I was ready to go, bright and early

Well I'm finally in the Grand Hotel in Nagaoka after over 24 hours of travel.  Without wishing to jinx future trips it was once again uneventful and everything went according to plan