We started our day by walking down to the train station to catch the local train to the main Tokyo station where were boarded the Shinkanzen (the Japanese bullet train) to Nagano. In Nagano, we boarded the local train which took us to Obuse, our first stop of the day.
We were excited to get out of the city and up into the Japanese Alps.

After dropping our backpacks off in some coin lockers at the train station, we walked through the small town of Obuse. Our first stop was a Japanese style sweets shop that specialized in Chestnut sweets, as well as some other standard Japanese sugar sweets. We tried a sample
of the pressed sugar type and it was quite good.

Next door to the Sweetshop was an old Sake brewery. It's not being used as a brewery any longer, but it had a nice tasting bar. Christine & I tried two different types of sake (one sweet and one dry) which were delicious. There were also some very good little beans that you ate in between sips of the sake, and they were very good as well. The older Japanese man who
was giving us the tastings also gave us a small sample of the "first sake" which is the first little bit out of a vat. It had a very clean and crisp flavor, slightly different from either of the first who we had tried.

Thankfully, after all the sake tasting, it was now lunchtime. Kent ordered the pork & vegetable stew with chestnut rice, while Christine had the beef that was grilled over a very old style charcoal grill. Both lunches were very good and helped to mellow out all the sake that was in our stomachs from the tasting.

Once lunch was over, we headed over to the Museum dedicated to the works of Hokusai, who was a woodblock artist. We spent about a half-hour wandering through the museum, enjoying the many prints and paintings he had created. There was a nice area that showed the many
different steps that it took to create one of his masterpieces. It was very painstaking work, and the results were very impressive. There were also 2 large floats that had his paintings on them. They were beautiful!

After finishing in the museum, we had about 30 minutes to explore the rest of the area, stopping in some small shops to browse. Christine decided that she wanted an ice cream, so she ate that and then we waited for the taxi to come to take us to see the snow monkeys.

The taxi took us further up into the mountains. At times, the combination of the narrow road, sheer drops, hairpin turns, and pouring rain made for a nail-biting ride. We arrive at the entrance to the Monkey Park just as the rain subsided. After a short hike up to our onsen (our accommodations for the night) to drop off our bags, we ventured out to the Monkey Park. We
were thrilled to hear that the snow monkeys were out. We didn't expect to turn the corner to be greeted by at least 100 snow monkeys. Luckily, babies are born this time of the year, which made for some incredible pictures. Christine spent the entire time happily snapping photos and was sad when the park staff threw out apples, which the monkeys quickly devoured before retreating to their sleeping areas.

Back at the onsen, we met the group down in the dining area for dinner. This was a dinner in the Nabe style, which consisted of a big pot of broth to which you added meat, veggies, and noodles to make a delicious soup. There was also a salted and grilled fish, rice, tempura and some delicious pickles. We bravely sampled the cooked grasshoppers (a delicacy) which actually turned out to be quite tasty. They tasted a little like crunchy black licorice.

After dinner was over, we relaxed in our rooms for a while and then decided to head down to the hot springs to take a soak. The onsen we were staying at had both indoor and outdoor baths available, which were to be enjoyed in the nude. There was a private outdoor onsen for women, but if men wanted to enjoy the outdoor onsen they had to do so in the mixed-gender bath.

We decided to enjoy the cool evening air and use the outside mixed one. The hot springs were unbelievably hot. They were much hotter than any hot tub we had ever been in. It was very relaxing and sort of surreal to be up in the Japanese mountains, relaxing outside if a steaming bath. We were the only ones in the onsen, but as Christine went to the rinsing/changing area, she passed one of the male staff on his way for a soak. He very casually said hello as he passed a naked Christine.

After rinsing off, we headed back up to our room. The rooms at the onsen are a traditional Japanese style with a low table that you sit on the floor to use and a double futon on the floor for sleeping. We were both tired out from the long day so we called it a night, wanting to get up early to try and spend some more time with the Snow Monkeys before we left.