Went for sushi with Jo on Saturday and managed to sample squid, eel and some other fish I didn't know the name of. Yummy!
I then went out for dinner with Bel and her visiting friends from Hokkaido (far North of Japan) on Saturday night. We had planned to go in search of the snow monkeys on Sunday morning so I stayed over at "Hotel Berinda" so we could have an early start. With the milder weather closing in, we decided to visit Zenkoji Temple in Nagano city first in the hope of finding some cherry blossoms (Sakura). The Japanese make a huge deal of the Sakura season and organise outdoor viewing parties in parks or gardens where they eat sweets and drink beer! The season is starting a little too early but we found few buds that had started to open:
Some locals gathering smoke from burning insense - they believe the smoke will make them healthy.
Zenkoji Temple
Bel and me - Zenkoji Temple
After we found "the key to enlightenment" at Zenkoji, we then made our way to Shigakogen in search of the Jigokudani Yaen Kogen snow monkeys! The area has a natural onsen of hot water and the monkeys come down from the forest to play and swim in the water. Jigokudani is usually covered with snow and there are several famous photographs in Japan of monkeys with snow covered heads poking out of the water. Unfortunately, it has been too mild recently and there was no snow on the ground on this occasion. The monkeys come so close and don't really seem interested in the humans around them so I managed to get some good pictures anyway.
This one had a slight resemblence to Harry Potter!
Stumbled upon this little gem of an Engrish sign on the path to see the monkeys.
No comments:
Post a Comment