Today we moved house from Ikebukuro to Yudanaka. Yudanaka is about three hours from Tokyo and we had to take three trains to get the there including a Shinkansen and an electric train. About half way through the journey we started to see a lot of snow and when we arrived Yudanaka was smothered in snow.

We started to trek our way from the station to our ryokan, Shimaya, and as we were walking a car pulled up next to us and the man called out the window "where are you going?" I called back Shimaya and he told us to hop in. I recognised him as the owner of the ryokan so we hopped in and got a lift the rest of the way. It wasn't that far but would've been a bit unpleasant lugging our bags through the snow.

When we got to the ryokan we filled out our check in forms and then the owner said he would take us to the monkey park because we were early. His English is good enough that you can understand most things but then not quite clear enough that you miss details. We waited in the foyer for a bit until he said our room was ready and he took us up to that. It's a very cool tatami mat room with traditional Japanese style beds and an enclosed balcony so we were very happy with it. However we were then a bit confused as to whether we were still going to the monkey park considering our room was ready now. We went back to the foyer and the owner told us we would be leaving in 15mins and then showed us a cupboard full of snow boots to put on.

When he was ready we hopped back into his car and then he said he had to stop and get groceries so we waited in the car while he went into the store. When he was back we drive up to the monkey park and he gave us instructions on how to walk back. Then we were off!

The trek up the mountain was 1.6km which isn't that long but was slow going due to the snowy path. After about 40mins we reached the park and had a hot drink in the little hit before going to see the monkeys.

The monkeys (and all the people with their massive cameras with huge lenses) were gathered around the onsen. We tried to squeeze in there and we got a few good photos. Then we moved down closer to the river where there were less monkeys but also less people too.

We had started to few pretty cold by this point so we decided it was time to head back down. At the bottom of the hill was a cafe where we ducked in for a late lunch. Shannon had ramen and I had a fried sweet potato and some edamame which was delicious.

After warming up in there we set back out into the cold and started the walk back home. The ryokan owner, Yumoto-san, had said it was about a one mile walk and it seemed about that. It took us probably an hour to get back.

We were pretty cold by then so we organised to go into the outdoor onsen. It was a short walk from the ryokan and was a very beautiful bath. There was no washing area at this one so we just stripped down and went out into the cold night air to slip into the bath. We put our feet in first but because our feet were so cold the water felt very hot. After a few minutes of acclimating our feet we were able to dip in all the way. It was beautifully warm and we stayed in for about half an hour before we decided it was time to get out.

We were warmed through to our insides and very relaxed. We needed dinner though so we made a quick trip back tithe ryokan to grab our coats before setting off down the street. We found a restaurant called D-Line that did pizza and pasta that we decided sounded pretty appealing. We shared a salad, a pasta and a pizza and had a drink each. The onsen had made us both quite sleepy so we were ready for bed by this time even though it was only 7:30pm.

Not sure what's on the cards for tomorrow but I'm looking forward to more onsens.