Japan Day 6 - Snow Monkeys and the Train to Matsumoto

Today was a nice late start - 9:30 am. We took a bus to the Jigokudani Monkey Park, about 45 minutes away. As I went through the station, there was a store that made me stop and stare. It was like a modern day 'Mr. Selfridges' in that 2 clerks (or greeters perhaps?) were just inside the door standing at perfect attention waiting to greet customers. Go figure!

Nagano, home of the '98 Winter Olympics, is surrounded by mountains and the fall colours were spectacular. Fortunately, it was a nicer day than yesterday and the sun even came out for a while. Along the bus route we saw apple orchards, persimmons, grapes and many greenhouses. 

A sign said the monkey park was 1.8 kilometres away. I'm sure that was the longest 1.8 km. I've ever walked. My step counter registered well over 5,000 steps before we were there – that can’t be right. The path went up and up, then down and level for a while. We first walked past residences, then got into a forest with the tallest, straightest trees I've seen in some time. It was muddy and slippery in places and it was hard going. But then I saw quite an elderly couple walking towards us and the woman had a crooked leg. Still she walked on so I figured if she could, I could!

The snow monkeys were absolutely delightful! There are about 160 monkeys in the area. They stay there because they are fed by staff to attract tourists and scientists also study them there. There weren't many bathing in the hot springs but I did get some lovely photos of some of them in the steam. 

They were all over the rocks, paths, bridges and down below. They seemed to spend most of their time grooming one another or eating.  Sometimes they came up behind you without you realizing it, especially if you were concentrating on picture taking. And once in a while, some of them began to fight for seemingly no reason at all. The little ones were so darling.

Many times the monkeys had their back to you but then would turn and look right at you and melt your heart. They moved fairly fast and I got a lot of bad shots but I think I got a few decent ones too.  I shot a lot of video because a still pic just doesn't tell the same story. 

All too soon we had to leave. Fortunately the way back seemed to take less time. We stopped at a restaurant enroute and I grabbed a muffin to tide me over. I could have eaten lunch there but didn't want to miss the bus and then the train to the next town. 

I was surprised at how there was never a trash can around when you needed one. This sign explained it all. Despite the lack of garbage cans, there never seemed to be litter all over the place. We could take a lesson from Japan!

We had about an hour once we got back to Nagano and I had a bite to eat. I'm surprised by how many restaurants and businesses don't have English menus or understand any English at all. I would have thought that tourism would have changed that. 

The train ride to Matsumoto was less than an hour long fortunately and I spent the time composing emails for later when I have Wi-Fi. Matsumoto is a city of 400,000. That's huge to me but not to others. Our hotel belongs to the same chain we stayed at in Tokyo. 


Some of us went for supper at a restaurant in the train station. It was located in a department store called Midori. I was surprised by the decor and menu. Like last night, we had to remove our shoes. We then sat at traditional Japanese benches at a low table where we could put our legs under the table. Most of us ordered fried chicken (the specialty of the area), which came with rice, soup and plain cabbage. It was the biggest portion of chicken I have EVER been served! 

I also ordered a drink which I thought was a plum wine cocktail. It turns out that the word 'Highball' is a type of rye whiskey, not what I was expecting at all! I asked for a doggy bag to bring some of the chicken back for breakfast tomorrow.

15,000+ steps!