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

Well at about 3pm this afternoon I finally arrived back home after travelling for approximately 40 hours !!!

And so ends another trip.  As I write this I'm just about to check out of the hotel in Izumo and begin a long long journey home.  It's a time of mixed feelings, on one hand I always hate leaving Japan, and in the back of my mind there is always the small thought that circumstances may change and prevent me from returning.  On the other I always look forward to getting back to the family, especially after so long away.