yougottagotonagano

Summer in Tokyo
Still air and the sour hot stench of humidity, pollution and poorly handled garbage. Evenings rarely provide relief and are often even hotter than the day. Multiple showers and frequent changes of clothes; how long can you deal without the air conditioner? Fortunately, the beginning of August ushers in my one month stay in California. However, Yoshiko cannot come, so we arranged for some special time together.
Japan has all sorts of ridiculous holidays that I am so thankful for like Boys day, Half and Half day and Gymnastics day, but maybe Ocean Day weekend is the best. Ocean Day comes during the abysmal Summer and offers three days of escape to the mountains. Yoshiko and I booked a hot spring hotel and Shinkansen tickets to Nagano, nestled in the Japanese alps and sight of the 1998 winter Olympics. It is common knowledge that the alps provide cooler temperatures and less humidity during the summer, so we were enthusiastic about our upcoming journey.
Early Saturday morning we boarded the bullet train and took off in a north west direction through Saitama and up through the foothills stopping occasionally at increasingly beautiful locations. Of note would be the popular resort town of Karuizawa, initially founded by a Scottish resident of Tokyo about 100 years ago; it is still frequented today by city folk looking for a little relief from the endless stew bog.
We arrived at Nagano station as some drizzle was subsiding. It was in fact cooler and less humid, so after a quick breakfast and throwing our bags in a locker we got down to some siteseeing. Our first destination was Zenkuji Temple.



Here's a turtle pond near the temple, turtles are cute and are good luck. Don't eat turtles, unless there's no other option.



Nice place, but Yoshiko being from Nara was not overly impressed. The really interesting part was a ceremony inside with the chanting and the gong ringing and all that neat atmospheric stuff. Also interesting was the old town around the temple. It has the same historical flavor as Kyoto, but much less crowded. Unlike Kyoto not every quaint little street of old homes have been converted into restaurant row. It's still a working class neighborhood of old houses.
Next we boarded a cute three car train called Naga-den. The costly ticket would take us to Youdanaka, a historic resort town. I took a photo of the cute train, but somehow it's lost to the digital waste in my memory card of my cell phone. However here's a link to see the train.

Nagaden




After a ten minute walk we settled into our room and took showers. We had about an hour before dinner so we took a walk around the town. Youdanaka's glory days began during the bubble economy of the 1980's as an escape for Salary Men, there was even a cute little red light district. Then in the 1990's the Olympics came and brought a tad more prosperity and infrastructure development (read; a lot of unnecessary construction). However recently the town has settled into a steady manageable tourist trade that features beautiful natural landscape, lots of hot springs (including the famous hot spring monkeys that I will explain later) and cool weather in the Summer. There is another side to Youdanaka however, as the verdant slopes tapering out to the mountain sides are littered with small family farms. Yoshiko and I strolled through the quiet green orchards and vegetable fields soaking in silence and cool breezes.


pretty house with wooden boxes makes nice arty photo

We ate well slept and got up early for more walking around the farms. This time it started raining. But it was so much nicer than being in Tokyo we really didn't care because it was so cool clean and quiet. After breakfast we dropped off our bags at the station and the hotel manager drove up to the prefecture park that features the hot spring monkeys.



Steamy stinky sulfuric geyser in pretty forest

So, it's still raining but we solger on up a long steep road while lazy drivers overtake us to the parking lot entrance. We trudge up stair steps and into a pretty forest away from those bothersome cars. After a nice climb we come to the monkey park entrance. There's a fair amount of tourist there but not really annoying, as everyone is equally fascinated by the site of monkeys everywhere.



Tourists fascinated by monkeys. There's one on the right sitting and a couple of babies playing in the hot spring.




This cute feller thinks he's people folk by the way he swims.

We surmised from the information we were given that the monkeys have been here long before people arrived. They stay because the caretakers of the park feed them. Only the caretakers feed them so the monkeys don't bother other people, however they are also unafraid, so they don't mind if you are close.



Mommy monkey sheltering her baby from the rain sits on the food box.

We left the park down a different trail that was almost empty of tourists. It was muddy and slippery but we managed. Then we came out on a road littered with resort bed and breakfasts. We got out of the rain and dried out while sipping coffee in an old Swiss chalet looking mansion. Our spirits were high and we chatted with caffeine energy while the rain subsided. We continued our trek down the road until we got to a bus stop. We lucked out and caught a bus back to the station just in time to get the express back to Nagano.
We spent the afternoon strolling around Nagano city, exploring the old town and gift shopping as the rain came and went. After a nice meal featuring locally grown goodies we caught the evening train back to Tokyo
Thanks for reading.