Nagano

Wednesday night, we took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagano. It was less than a two hour ride, so we got there at a decent time and checked into a hotel. The next day after breakfast, we hopped on a local train and headed straight for the Jigokudani Monkey Park in the mountains about an hour away, famous for the wild, Japanese macaques, or "snow monkeys," that bathe in the hot springs during the winter. Unfortunately, we didn't get the aesthetics of snow, but it was still gorgeous and super green, and there are baby monkeys this time of year! The walk from the park entrance was about 30 minutes of beautiful scenery with the sounds of a river down the steep slope of trees on the side of our path. Minus the "poisonous/deadly" snake warnings posted all over the place, it was very enjoyable.

The monkeys weren't scared of us at all. In fact, we were more scared of them! One even bared its teeth at Tyler when he tried to wave at it. The park staff keep them fed, so they all just chill around the natural hot springs, even during the summer.

Baby!

Afterwards, we visited the town of Matsushiro, thinking the castle there was the famous one in Nagano (it wasn't -- we mixed them up, the famous one is called Matsumoto Castle). So we visited Matsushiro Castle instead, which wasn't the most impressive ever. Last week, there was a 5.4 earthquake that had damaged Matsumoto Castle, so I was very confused when Matsushiro looked in perfect condition. Oops, mix up. (There were supposed to be aftershocks all this week, but we didn't experience any.) Matsushiro, in general, was very quaint and cute, all old Japanese-styled.

Matsushiro is also known for the World War II tunnels dug into the sides of the mountains there, so we visited those as well. Late in 1944, with the number and intensity of air raids over Japanese cities steadily increasing, Japan's military government decided to evacuate key facilities from vulnerable locations such as Tokyo to the small town of Matsushiro in a rural part of Nagano prefecture. They were dug out for the Imperial Palace and Army Headquarters, government agencies, residents of the Imperial family, etc. Basically, no commoners. Super creepy once you started getting deep into them.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time for the Zenkō-ji temple, but we did get a chance to meet a man on the train that lived there! We had a great time! This weekend, Tyler is headed to Hiroshima and Miyajima, so expect updates by next week!