We rose quite early this morning, as Christine wanted to go down and take another soak in the hot springs before we left. Kent decided that he would skip that and went for a nice walk in the forest instead, enjoying the peacefulness and the sounds of the birds.

This was our first Japanese style breakfast. The Japanese style of breakfast consisted of Miso soup, rice, a salad, a lightly cooked egg (that you mixed with rice and soya sauce), some fish cakes, and assorted pickles. It was quite tasty and very filling.

Once breakfast was over it was time to head down to spend a few more minutes with the Snow Monkeys before we left. There were a bunch of them on the roof of the onsen on the way down the stairs and then tons of them inside the park area. It seemed to be that mornings were used by the monkeys for 'bug picking' and playtime, although the staff member showing up with a bucket of food got their attention as well. We took lots more pictures and really enjoyed watching them. It was the highlight of the trip so far!

We had to finally leave our monkey friends and head back to Nagano, on our way to Matsumoto to see the famous castle that is located there. It is one of the four National Treasure castles left in Japan. It was built in the late 1500s, only the donjon tower (the keep) remains. We were able to walk through the donjon tower from top to bottom, as it has been converted into a museum of sorts. The stairs inside the tower are incredibly steep and narrow, designed to make it difficult for invaders to work their way up to the top where the lord would be during a crisis. It was quite interesting to see a building of the age and see all the features that were built into it for defense.

After our visit to the castle, we got back on the train to head for Narai and our accommodation for the night. Narai is a "post town" on the ancient road from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). Post towns were places for travelers on the road to stop for the night on their journey. It is a very interesting and quaint town, and we look forward to being able to explore it tomorrow.

Our accommodations for tonight (and tomorrow night) are a Minshuku, which is a family-run inn. The sleeping area is much like the room at the onsen, with tatami mats on the floor and a futon for sleeping. Another spectacular Japanese dinner awaited us after a quick walk up and down the main road of Narai. These meals consist of many small items, but when you put them all together it makes for a lot of food. Christine got through more of it tonight than Kent did, but both of us were quite full when it was finished. A quick soak in the bath and an early night for us tonight as tomorrow is another full day.