Monkeying around!

Day one in Nagano: our hotel was closed till 5 so we left our stuff with the hotel associated with ours and walked around. We checked out the zenkoji temple, one of the highlights of Nagano, as well as some cute shops. Since the Olympics were here in 1998 there are significantly more English signs and English speakers than what we have seen so far.

We returned to check into our room which was a twin room without Internet so we went to a single room with Internet. I wasn't pleased with this as we had paid for a double room with Internet so after much discussion we were checked into two single rooms (there is no wifi in our hotel, ly a network cable, so again Yosha's laptop had come in handy!) We toured around Nagano, went to an old temple, then went to a tasty Indonesian/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. I had a Thai salad and deep fried cheese (don't knock it till you try it!) and Yosha had a tasty stir fried rice dish.

Thursday we went to Yudanaka to check out a snow monkey park. It's a park in a valley (which Sean told me is translated to Death Valley) where snow monkeys come and hang out in the hot springs. It was so wonderfully cool to hang out with the monkeys and observe them so closely in their natural habitat! At one point I put my bag on the ground to observe a monkey and looked back to find two small monkeys playing with the zippers on my bag and trying to open it. It was adorable! Unfortunately one of them left some monkey poop on my bag. Hopefully the bag won't get quarantined at customs but I am sure by the time we get home most of it will be cleaned off!

We met a group of 5 cool Americans on the bus so we spend the afternoon with them walking around the town, then we took a train to Obuse,  nearby town known for their chestnuts. Between chestnut stores, sake tasting and touring around other stores it was an enjoyable afternoon!

We met back up with them for dinner in Nagano. After consulting a number of menus we settled on a place called Vingo. We ordered some yummy plum wine and a number of delicious dishes like steak, spare ribs, a sort of egg, noodle, veggie omelette wrapped in bacon and chicken. It was an amazing dinner made even better with the entertainment from the room next to us. Some Japanese patrons next to us were getting stinking drunk, falling all over themselves and stumbling around. Naturally I had to go say hi! They spoke a bit of English, asked where we were from and high fived us all. It was quite comical! From there we went to a funky Indian bar that had every cheesy wall clock you could imagine! We ended fairly early as we were all heading to Matsumoto in the morning.

On the way to the train station we had a lovely chat with an 80 year old man who loved my Hello Kitty backpack. His English was absolutely amazing! We talked about Japanese culture mostly, our experiences thus far, our itinerary, that kind of thing. We talked about how amazed we were at how friendly everyone is, and even if people couldn't really speak English they would do everything they could to help. On two occasions when we were looking for a particular destination and asked someone they walked us to where we needed to go, which was incredibly helpful and friendly!

We arrived in Matsumoto around noon and came to the Matsumoto Backpackers (which is super neato by the way. We are sleeping on tatami mats on the floor with a futon mattress and a duvet. There are 4 girls in the room; it kinda feels like an old school sleepover! We spent the day walking around the city, checking out shops downtown in the shopping district and went to see Matsumoto Castle, the oldest castle in Japan. The shops were neat though I can't really argue with the fact there was some kind of bakery every few doors! Of course we had to sample as we went. We couldn't say no! In our defence we walked around 5-6 hours today!

For dinner we went to a restaurant that has sushi on a conveyor belt. Plate of various kinds of sushi go around on a conveyor plate and you grab what you want. We tried tons of different kinds of sushi and various desserts. In the end we ate 21 plates worth, though there were only two pieces of sushi per plate. It cost about $10; take THAT, all you can eat sushi!! Afterwards we went to an onsen. Thank goodness we went before with Nonaco and her mom so we knew what to do! There were a number of hot tubs both inside and outside. It felt amazing to be out in the cool breeze! 

Tomorrow we venture off to Magome, about two hours from here by local train plus a half hour bus ride. Magome is an old post town where a lot of trading used to take place. We are hoping to do an 8km hike from Magome to Tsumago and back but according to the weather it looks like it will be pouring so we may have to hike super early Sunday morning before checking out! Hopefully not though... 

It feels like we are covering a lot of ground in a short period of time. Matsumoto is a great city with a super funky vibe, so it has definitely been a worthwhile stop! We are both looking forward to dumping our stuff in Kyoto and settling down for a few days. Moving from place to place every few days can be a little tiring! 

Here is a random mix of funny photos!

at the castle at Matsumoto; on the way to Matsumoto (we are in the Japanese Alps here so it's amazing snow-covered mountains all around us!); the lil monkeys trying to bust into my bag; we could get so close to the monkeys that I just wanted to pick them up and hold them!; on the podium in Nagano; and a monkey didn't want to make friends with Yosha :(

Thanks for taking part in the adventure!