What's pho lunch

Yesterday I stumbled on a little hole in the wall pho place near work.  Some might think, big whoop, but bowls of that tasty beef goodness have been few and far between since I came to Japan. Sure there have been plenty of other kinda of tasty beefy bowls to be had, but sometimes you have a craving.  The place, as I said, was a hole in the wall.  The kitchen is also located at the front of the store and doesn't have a door, so you could in theory stand and watch your food being made or slopped out or what have you.
Gotta say that the food was good, though a touch on the salty side but all in all goodness galore. And it gives me a good excuse to post a pic. What more could you ask for.

Karuizawa boarding

Well, well, well. Looks like I find myself back here after over a year and change's absence.  Well I wanted to document my first boarding outing since I came to japan, so here's I is.
Karuizawa is a small city on the way to Nagano from Tokyo.  Now the great thing about the slope that I want to is that it's also on the way to Nagano. As in get off the bullet train and walk 5 minutes to the lodge. Can't top that.  So what's it like? Well it's smaller that a mountain but larger than a molehill. About Blue Mountain size. The boarding itself was decent, but with the daytime high of 4C today it was a little soft in spots and a little icy in others.  All in all though, a decent day.