The town that we stayed in for the two days, Yudanaka Onsen, is quite a lovely town. It's a half hour scenic stroll to the nearby Shibu Onsen, which I embarked with toddler in pram while my sister and husband went snowboarding at a nearby ski field (it was Honey's first time, and Rob has wanted to snowboard a lot more than me, so it made sense for me to stay behind with Zak). Not as exciting as snowboarding, but I wasn't going to waste time and mope around the ryokan.
A panoramic shot of the river running through the town (click for larger image):
I love Japanese rivers, regardless of how manmade they are; and a mini stream of hot spring:
Early the following day, we headed out to the Jigokudani Yaen Koen to see the snow monkeys. The name Jigokudani means "Hell's Valley" and the park is so named because of the steam that blows out of small crevices in the ground. During winter, getting to the park involves hiking 1.6km in the snow through the slopes of the forest, making for quite a slippery walk and ropes were kindly provided to tie around our shoes to help with traction in the snow. Having good traction in the snow was especially important for the person carrying the precious 11kg cargo, which was me on the way up, and then Rob took Zak on the way down.
A sign saying that tying ropes on the shoes would help avoid slipping in the snow; and the mountainous snowy terrain on the hike:
Sign of life after walking through the snowy forest for half an hour: a minshuku (a Japanese inn) located next to the Monkey Park; and looking down at this minshuku from above - that's a steam outlet for the hot springs, and there were monkeys roaming all around the area:
Young monkeys play fighting over a ball of snow; and monkeys having a nice hot bath in the onsen:
Bathing with grooming service included:
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