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May 4, 2014
 

Nagano

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    Checkin at Gifu Station
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      After waking up really early and stocking up on rice balls and pickles at the hotel breakfast, we jumped on a train to Nagano.

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    Checkin at Nagano Station
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      Nagano is high up in the mountains and snowy peaks began to rise over the landscape. The Winter Olympic were held here in 1998.

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    Checkin at Yamanouchi, Nagano
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      We picked up some bento in Nagano before catching the Snowmonkey Express to Yamanouchi.

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      A lovely old man behind us popped his head up over the seat and started chatting to us about our trip and showed us photos from his trip to the Taj Mahal.

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      Eventually we arrived in Yamanouchi where we were staying at a traditional ryokan. Our room was lovely with beds on tatami straw mats and welcome cakes in our room.

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    Checkin at Jigokudani Monkey Park
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      After checking in, our host gave us a lift to the Jigokudani Monkey Park where you can see snow monkeys keeping warm and bathing in the hot springs.

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      There was a short trek to get to the hot springs but the trail was really pretty with lots of interesting sounding birds.

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      The snow monkeys rely on the hot springs to survive in the winter and it's so funny watching them bathe. People were worried it would be too warm for them to go in the water but they were swimming around happily when we arrived.

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      There are over 150 monkeys living in the park, who are divided in to four groups and one group uses the bath at a time while the others wait.

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      The monkeys didn't seem to mind tourists at all, though there were signs saying not to take food or the monkeys would steal your bags and not to look them directly in the eye. A baby monkey tried to jump up and grab my camera while I was taking a photo of him. We could have stayed and watched them all day.

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    We walked back in to town through the old twisty streets which were lined with ryokans and people walking between the baths in their yukata. I love the clacking sound their sandals made on the cobbled streets.

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    We changed in to our yukata when we got back to our ryokan and ventured in to the onsen. Luckily there was no one else there and it was lovely and hot after the cold mountains.

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    In the evening, our host invited us down to watch an archery demonstration. He was a Japanese Archery champion and wore his formal kimono. After the demonstration we got to have a chance at holding and firing the bows which were really hard to pull.

 
 
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Nagano Station × Delete
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Yamanouchi, Nagano × Delete
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