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Anyway after my stay in Kyoto, things really started to heat up; in a good way.
I decided to head up to a small town called Tsumago. This is a really old town which has been very well preserved and looks and feels like it did about 100 years ago. Obviously there are many changes but the general facade is nice.

The town basically lives off of tourism. The only shops were tourist shops and food places. Plus of course the minshuku and hotels.

There are two ways to get to tsumago, either by Shinano Limited Express from Nagoya to Nagiso and then by bus, or from Nagoya to Nakatsugawa by the very same Shinano and then local to Nagiso.
I got the Nakatsugawa route when I booked and set off. This was the night after I slept at a manga cafe in Nagoya (note that the very same building had a capsule hotel... I could have had a nice bath! fscK).

As I arrived at Nakatsugawa station I was extremely hungry. My hunger was great, and so was my ignorance about where to find food. Luckilly I saw a gaijin with bags standing around looking like she knew a thing or two, but that might have been an excuse I made up to strike up a conversation. Thus I asked for a food place recommendation.　She did not know any place, and after a few minutes it was revealed that she was going to Kiso-Fukushima, to a little Youth Hostel in the mountains, but that the last bus up there was leaving at 1715 and it would still take about 40 minutes by train to get to Kiso-Fukushima. The time was 1800 so she decided to find a local accomodation until tomorrow.
I mentioned that I was going to Tsumago to which she shockilngly wondered how I was going to get there. I mentioned a bus and that the train was indeed leaving in about 5 minutes to Nagiso. She decided to tag along and we boarded the train. Her name was Alice.

From Nagiso I called the Minshuku that I had booked earlier, Daikitchi （大吉) however at that point they had no more rooms. We figured though that we'd risk it and go anyway. We took a cab, since buses were no longer going and could thus share the fee.
Upon arrival at the minshuku, it was quickly confirmed that there were no rooms, but Japanese people do not give up easilly so almost immediately I was offered the grandsons room. You can see the room here and the minshuku entrance here. My newfound lady friend was given my previously booked room, and after some pleasant conversation over tea, we had a bath we each took a bath and hit the hay. Breakfast was at 07.30.
Upon waking up I was hit by a suprising view out the window (and a 10 degrees cold room). Everything was coverered in snow.
This was my first Japanese Breakfast, and out of the 2 that I've had since then, it was also the best. Alice and I ate our breakfast together, and decided to take the 3 hour or so hike up to Magome which is a neighbouring city, and we would be able to follow the same path that travellers used all those years ago, passing some wonderful sights on the way.

So after breakfast, we set off on a mission.
At this point I will sign off as I wanna get some sleep, but from this point on I really had a great trip. I met a ton of new people, visited a few funky places and did fun stuff. Today I did the Expo 2005 in Aichi. It was a huge endevour and I was there from 10am to 8.30pm. My feet hurt like shit and upon arriving back at Nagoya, me and a new companion I've been travelling with recently had some ramen from a street kiosk. The Expo was rock ass, and I wish I could go again to see more, because I don't think we even did half of it.

I uploaded new pics to Flickr, have a look at them. (link on side menu)