NAGANO YUDANAKA SNOW MONKEY PARK SHIMAYA

http://www.flickr.com/seDear Mr and Mrs Yumoto

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Hello!

We left Kyoto on 15 November for Nagoya. This was a 36 minutes journey by Shinkansen. At Nagoya Station, we took the Shinano 9 for Nagano. This was the first time that a JR train was delayed and just before Matsumoto, the announcement sound system went dead and because the train stopped at 13:53 at a station, we thought that we had arrived at Nagano, but a few minutes on the platform made us realised that this was not Nagano and we hastily boarded the train to arrive at Nagano some 20 minutes late. One redeeming feature of this journey was the platform attendant insisted in carrying our luggage up a flight of stairs! As we had 40 minutes before the next train, I looked for roasted chestnuts because Nagano was famous for chestnuts, but this was not successful.

We then looked for the station for the Nagaden Dentetsu Line which was located outside the JR Nagano Station, on the right hand side. We could not find a lift and had to carry the three bags down two flights of stairs. Here, Anne saw people emerging from a slope with their luggage! The train itself was of a space age design and in the first carriage, there was a port-hole in the ceiling and we saw the train driver climbing through this port-hole to his cabin! The train ride itself was through a very scenic area and we fully appreciated the panoramic windows.

We arrived at Yudanaka Onsen on time but it was cold and there was a slight rain. We took the road uphill and after 20 minutes, we arrived at Shimaya Ryokan where we were warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by Mr and Mrs Yumoto. Mr Yumoto spoke excellent English and the whole ryokan was well equipped with computers and wifi. He gave us a very good talk on what could be seen in the area and it was very obvious that Lonely Planet left out a huge chunk of interesting things in this area! Our luggage were soon carried upstairs to our two room and we sat down to some hot drinks and Japanese cookies.

Our next surprise was when we sat down for dinner to a most delicious feast of meat, fish, mild pickles and fragrant Japanese rice followed by wonderful tempura and Fuji apples, kiwi fruit and persimmons. Mrs Yumoto was a really great gourmet cook!

Next day, after an equally delicious breakfast, we were taken to the entrance of the Snow Monkey Park, look at IMG_4137. We had to walk along a mountain path for 2 kilometres in the gentle snowing weather before we arrived at the hot springs where the monkeys were. These monkeys were obviously used to human beings and they carried on their activities without paying attention to these two legged beings taking their photographs. The male monkeys were very aggressive to other male monkeys and carried on fight each other or chasing the tails of the females. The baby monkeys were carried around by the mothers. They spent quite a long time grooming each other and soaking in the hot springs.

After seeing the monkeys, we walked down into the town in what we thought was the correct direction. We passed by a brewery which we saw on the way to the Snow Monkey Park and then we were directed into the old town. There were many places offering hot spring baths (at a price) but soon we realised we were hopelessly lost!

As it was lunch time, most shops were closed but eventually found a shop that was open and the lady looking after the shop rang for Mr Yumoto and he came to pick us up. We returned to the ryokan for some hot drinks and then Mr Yumoto took us to the station when we boarded the train to Nagano, a pleasant little city which I will write about later.

We were certainly feeling sad to say goodbye to these two wonderful Mr and Mrs Yumoto and this interesting area.

Sze

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