Onsen, this time for monkeys

We arrived late to Nagano city. There was nothing under the ¥2500 on the Booking at the moment so we decided to just walk around and check few guesthouses if they might have something for one night. After half an hour we found this cool place with the mountain bikes all around the front face of the building. We asked and they had a free room for two days. Room had four little wooden cubes, like in a capsule hotel. The experience of sleep in a corps box for some but it was ok for us. They had a kitchen and all one needs to make a dinner.

Vibrating phone under my pillow woke me up at 7 am. Excited, I was up and moving in few minutes. Time to see "Snow monkeys"! There are more ways to get there, although no JR line. Hitchhiking is probably the cheapest way to reach reservation park, but train is the fastest. Since it was scheduled to rain we decided to take a train. Return ticket from Nagano station costs around ¥2000. From train station there a local bus towards the reservation park, but it's better to walk few minutes more, small town Yudanaka is beautiful. Lots of public Onsens and excellent Soba noodles all around.

It cost us ¥800 to get in the park and it was worth every yen. Regardless of my expectations (I was tought monkeys would be in all natural environment) monkeys have it really good there! Pond with hot spring water was modified a bit to better suit them. They have lots of ways to go around and away from the public area into wildness. Visitors can't go everywhere. Here are some pictures I took.

On our way back Sujata, girl from New Zealand, Žiga and me met one old fellow. He started the conversation in english! He said he is learning english by himself for a while now, and that he lives here with his wife. He was 92 years old and he showed us a way towards the Yudamaka train station.