This is PART 2 of my last week in Japan! Scroll down for the first part -> Tokyo!
Tuesday, May 20
We left Tokyo this morning to head to the Snow Monkey Park!!! WOOHOOOO!
The snow monkeys are near a city called Nagano. :)
So it was back on the Shinkansen to Nagano!
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| Shinkansens nose to nose |
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| Pretty colored Shinkansen |
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| Nagano station is so pretty! Look at those mountains :3 |
Then we took this freaking
adorable train to the snow monkey park!
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| Guys, it's so, so, SO cute!!! |
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| Look at all dem kittiesss!!! |
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| SEW KAYUTE! |
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| ahhhhhhhh. Can I, like, purchase this train? |
Aaaand here's the train station where you can catch the bus that goes up to the park! See, that sign is for the park!
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| Supah cute sign for the monkey park! |
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| Cute Engrish sign |
After the bus dropped us off, it was a thirty minute walk up to the ryoukan we were staying at.
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| Cool shrine thing we passed |
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| Yay, the entrance! |
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| "Because there is the situation when a step is bad, please be careful" lol |
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| Such a pretty forest! |
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| Maple tree! |
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| "Slack ninjas" graffiti |
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| Cute drain covers! Nagano is famous for apples :) |
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| Hot springs around our ryoukan! |
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| Bridge you cross to get to our ryoukan! |
Our ryoukan was 150 years old!! And it was surrounded by monkeys! It was right next to the monkey park that we decided not to go in because it was almost closing.
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| Cute monkey contemplating life |
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| Hello there! |
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| Our futons in our room! |
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| Our tea table! |
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| Me on the bridge! |
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| There's a geyser in the hot spring! It reminded me of Yellowstone. |
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| Look at all dem monkeys up dere! Sewww cutee!! |
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| Monkey scratching his friend's stomach |
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| Close up, cute! |
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| AND HUGGING MONKEYSSS!!! awwwwwww |
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| Me with the monkeys! |
After we played with the monkeys, we headed down to the onsen!
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| We got kimono things for the onsen! |
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| Girls' onsen |
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| Cool hanging on the way into the onsen - it has monkeys! |
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| View from the onsen |
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| The onsen was BURNING hot!! I scalded my legs lol |
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| Pretty waterfall |
So we ended up bathing in the indoor onsen. Plus creepers kept taking pictures of us in the outdoor onsen (we kept our towels on).
Then we put our kimonos back on plus these thick fluffy shirt/jacket things.
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| All warm and comfy! Even though it was a bit chilly out |
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| Ryoukan behind me |
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| Then my sister and I played ping pong after the onsen just like they do in manga! |
At 5:00, it was time for dinner. The man and woman who ran the ryoukan made us a
spectacular dinner!
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| An entire fish, and what is that little brown thing in the corner? |
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| ...OMG IT'S A GRASSHOPPER!!! |
I taught my mom and sister how to eat the entire fish in all it's bone-filled glory. I finished it super quickly, but it took my mom like an hour to eat, haha.
The grasshopper was super sweet and tasted like caramelized or something. It was good! I still can't believe I ate a grasshopper though! It's legs were pretty crunchy...
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| This was tenpura leaves. Yeah, like legit tree leaves. And they were fried. Japan can seriously compete with Texas' Weird Fried Things Festival |
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| Seaweedish vegetables and a leg of chicken with carrots and potatoes |
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| And sashimi! |
After dinner we went to bed fairly early, because we were getting up at 6 am, and even though breakfast is usually at 8 am, the man and woman running the onsen were SUPER nice and told us they'd get up and make it for us at 6! :)
So the next morning we got up to an amazing breakfast!
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| Toast, cinnamon apples, OJish stuff, bacon and cabbage, and scrambled eggs (I don't like scrambled eggs, but these were nice and sweet) |
Then we headed out towards our next stop, Tateyama! I was super excited to see the huge walls of snow and drive through them!
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| This sign made me crack up. |
We took the snow monkey express back to Nagano!
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| On the backs of the seats |
And then we arrived back at Nagano!
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| Colored apple drain cover in Nagano! |
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