Beijing to Nagano

We traveled from Beijing to Nagano on the 1st of December. An interesting flight to Tokyo as the gentlemen next to me got sick during landing. He was quite discrete about it but I noticed he left the barf bag in the seat-back pocket!

We took a bus from Tokyo to Nagano, a 4 hour trip that went by fairly quick. It's quite amazing here in Nagano. It has a great view of the mountains, whose trees are turning all sorts of fall colours. There are traditional Japanese houses, zen-like yards and temples around town. We visited a national treasure today, the Zenkoji Temple.


The temple is Buddhist, but it welcomes any person of any religion. I wish we had tour guide while visiting the temple grounds. I'm sure there are many interesting facts that will stay completely unknown to me now.

For the most part the team is looking good. Gilday is having some back troubles and has taken some time off. Whether or not he skates this weekend in Japan will depend on how he feels tomorrow and Friday morning. It's odd in a way. Last year when Gilday didn't qualify for the first 4 world cups, he was brought to Japan as a replacement for someone injured. This time in he's the one that may miss the opportunity to race. Life has a funny way of unfolding I guess.

Racing this weekend will begin as usual with the preliminary races on Friday. Jessica Gregg will be skating a 500m and 1000m. Jessica Hewitt with race the 1000m and 1500m. Richard Shoebridge is entered into the 500m and 1000m while Gilday will race the 1500m twice.

Sayonara for now.

JC