Japan: Yamanouchi township and Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park

Chantra in her Yukata

Today me and the wifey headed on over to Nagano prefecture which is west of Tokyo.  We came out this way in order to have a real onsen experience and stay at one of the many Ryokans (traditional Japanese Inn).  We chose not to stay in the actual city of Nagano and went another 45 minutes west in order to reach a small, and I mean SMALL, town called Yamanouchi.  Yamanouchi is an onsen town and dozens of different Ryokans, each with it's own hot spring, populate this place.  

Yamanouchi

Our Room

The outdoor onsen.

The moment we stepped off the train we realized that this town was going to be quite different than Tokyo.  I mean there was barely anybody on the streets.  No crowds, no cars, and all you can hear is the chirping of the insects.  We chose to stay at a ryokan named Yudanaka Seifuso Onsen.  It's a small inn with it's own private hot spring that's run by a lovely elderly couple and their son.  They told me that this onsen has been in their family for 3 generations.  The rooms are traditional tatami mat rooms and we were provided with everything we would need.  It was pretty cool to walk around in our Yukata's and bathing in these beautiful out door hot springs is an experience everyone should enjoy.  Although, we did require some instruction on onsen etiquette which the owners were more than happy to teach us.  The weirdest part was getting over the being naked with random strangers thing but it really is like gym class.  None of the Japanese really pay any attention to you besides a polite hello.

There goes one of them now.  ;)

We also wanted to stay here because of the nearby Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park.  I'm sure many of you have already seen pictures of these adorable macaques.  They're a troop of about 160 monkey's or so who have developed an appreciation for the soothing waters of the hot spring.  Each day the troop comes down out of the mountains and basically lounge and chill-out near the hot springs.  It's a beautiful park and the monkey's are well behaved.  People don't feed them here so they have not developed the nasty habit of stealing things from people.  It's actually quite funny when you think about it.  Even Japanese monkey's are polite and well behaved.  ;)  Well, on to Kyoto!

Jigokudani.

Chinese influenced spicy ramen.

The onsen that the monkey's visit.

More Chasu Ramen.  Man was this a local place.  No tourists, no menu, no english.  But the ramen was on point!

Wasn't quite ready for the shot Chantra.

The hike up to Jigokudani.

Some other tourists enjoying lunch at Jigokudani.

Um... yeah that was the menu.