On January 9 we took the Shinkansen towards Nagano. Upon arrival we bought the bus tickets to go to Jigokudani Monkey Park to see the snow monkeys. After an hour and 15 minutes we arrived to the entrance of the park; from there we walked 1.6Km to the springs.
At the beginning just a couple of monkeys were in the spring and we thought it was going to be another one of those experiences you only see in the NatGeo channel. However, about half hour later more monkeys arrived and started filling up the pool. The scene gets more interesting by the minute as the monkeys relax and pamper each other in the spring. There were also a couple of fights, which brought a different spice to the scene. After an hour and a half of freezing our butts off we decided to start walking down.
We took the bus to the train station and got onto the local train. We got off at Obuse, a small town with traditional Japanese architecture. Unfortunately it was a bit late to enter some of the museums. We walked along the streets for over an hour and took the train to Nagano.
Upon arrival in Nagano we visited the Zenko-ji Temple, home of what is believed to be the first Buddhist image to arrive in Japan. The temple is another one of those stunning structures.
From the Zenko-ji Temple we walked along the main road towards Nagano’s City Centre. The town has a good vibe with great cafes and restaurants.
In the evening we took the Shinkansen to Kanazawa where we found a great hotel for a very good price!
