The Snow Monkeys

I've got two more nights this first stop in Japan and chose to spend two of them searching for Snow Monkeys.  In the mountains above Nagano, there's a geothermal region known as Hells Valley.  To get there, I took the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagano and a more traditional railroad up into the hills to Yodanaka.

While the town is small and easy to get around, it's off the beaten track and few speak English. I'm staying at Shimaya Ryokan, an onsen or hotel with its own hot springs.  My hotel host speaks some English and offers free rides to the Jigokuan Snow Monkey Park.  Thats' what sold me.  Hot springs are common in this area.  My onsen (they called it a hostel, but everyone has their own rooms) had two natural spas in the basement and a foot refreshing station out front.  The basement spas came in handy as I fought to stay off jet lag.  There was no problem wandering downstairs in the middle of the night for a soak.

Going out to dinner was an adventure.  Even with directions, another guest and I had to guess which business was the restaurant.  The sushi restaurant we'd found had a sign on the wall that said "How much do you want to pay?" with prices below it.  You point at a price and they bring you food.  My second night, I dined at the onsen in a private dining room.  The proprietor's wife would open my door, bow, bring one of the five courses of my meal, bow, serve me, bow, and bow when she left too.

They have strict rules in the park: Keep your distance from the monkeys.  Don't look the monkeys in the eyes.  Don't try to touch the monkeys.  And most importantly, don't show or give the monkeys food.  The monkeys are used to people and walk freely around you.  They busy themselves grooming each other and bathing.  They even have their own outdoor hot spring spa.  The little guy in the picture climbed on my back a few seconds earlier.  My picture-taker got a shot of him with her camera but not mine.  And she checked out of the onsen without me getting her address.