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POSTCARD FROM NAGANO, JAPAN

Silver Blade Tours, Inc. along with Bryan Sports Events recently returned from the World Figure Skating Championships which were held from March 15-25, 2002.

After our overnight stay in Tokyo, we joined the rest of the tour and traveled to Matsumoto by train for our welcome lunch at the Matsumoto Tokyu Inn. There, I met some of my clients who already had enjoyed the pre tour sights of Kyoto, Nagoya, Takayama, and the villages of Gokayama and Shirakayama.

We continued by bus to Matsumoto Castle, the oldest castle built in 1504 in Japan. Our hotel for the week was the Metropolitan Hotel in Nagano, host hotel for NBC during the 1998 Winter Olympics.

A slippery walk down snow covered steps and a journey through the forest brought us to see the wonders of the snow monkeys in Jigokudani (Hell Valley) Natural Monkey Park! What a sight it was with monkeys running everywhere sunning and grooming themselves and bathing in the hot springs. A visit and lunch to Obuse and the Hokusai-kan Museum highlighted another full day of sightseeing.

While in Nagano we visited the Zenko-ji Temple one of the most popular Buddhist temples in Japan and to Nishi-no-Mon Yoshinoya where Japanese sake is produced.

In between skating events, we visited Matsushiro to visit the Yokota Residence a well-preserved old Samurai residence. We also had the opportunity to make ''soba'' noodles, a staple food of Japan. They tasted great!

Our visit to the mountain village of Ogawa in the Japanese Alps was exciting. The Mayor of the town and the village people met us at the tie dyeing building waving American and Japanese flags. We all enjoyed dyeing our lace doilies with natural dyes.

The skating at Worlds was especially intriguing as we anticipated who the next World Champions would be. The only returning Olympic champion to compete at Worlds was Alexei Yagudin and he certainly proved once again why he is a champion. Russians dominated again in dance as Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh claimed their first dance title. The exciting Chinese pair of Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao also won their first pairs event. Irina Slutskaya of Russia finally won her first Ladies event. Of course, controversy surrounded the event, as the competitors signed a petition against the bronze medal placement of Israeli ice dancers Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhvnoski. The Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas skated to 4th place and protested the placement of the Israelis.

We concluded our tour with a farewell luncheon in Matsushiro complete with musicians who played traditional Japanese music. What an exciting ending to our visit to the ''land of the rising sun!''

See the Photos HERE!

Silver Blade Tours, Inc.
"The Skating Tour Experts"
Claudyne Cassella Hutchinson
2672 Flowing Well Road, DeLand, FL 32720-8903 USA
Tel. (386) 943-4071 - Fax: (386) 738-2512
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