Japan - Part 1 - Yudanaka

We arrived in Japan on the 7th of March and went forward 19 hours, which was a bit of a shock - lost a day, boo hiss!  As we'd been a bit disorganised, we only had a few general ideas of what we'd be doing for the next few weeks, so we'd pencilled in a couple of days of much needed "planning" time which we maxed out.

Our first impression of Japan to be honest was not that great.  We both independently wondered what on Earth we had done and how we'd get through the next few weeks - coming to a place where we couldn't understand what the people were saying, they couldn't really understand us and had no real idea of how to get around (all public transport, no car this time!).  Frankly, we felt massively out of our comfort zone.

We also had concerns with other silly stuff like what we would eat!  Nothing had any words on that we understood (naturally, this is Japan after all), so from the start we had to try and guess what stuff was based on what it looked like - trust me, this wasn't always easy.

Fortunately, things started to get much better when we left Narita and headed for our first planned stop - Yudanaka.  Where you ask?  Fair question.  Yudanaka is a small town in a fairly rural part of Japan and is most "famous" for being home to the snow monkeys!  Yep, we're suckers for a bit of wildlife.

One of the first challenges was to navigate our way from the airport, via a variety of Japanese trains.  Turns out it wasn't too bad and about 3 hours (& 3 trains) later we ended up in Yudanaka.  Part of the journey was on the speedy Shinkansen (that's the bullet train to you and me) which was pretty fast  - just a shame it was quite an old train.  

It was really cold when we got there and it was even more of a shock as we haven't seen a proper winter for about a year!  So for the first time in a while the warm clothing had to come out.

We had decided to stay in some traditional Japanese accommodation (a Ryokan) and we chose well.  It was owned by Mr & Mrs Yumoto who are 2 of the friendliest and most genuinely helpful people we have met in all of our travels.  They had such great local knowledge, were very funny and I swear were ex ninjas as they would just appear from nowhere when you least expected them!  He provided his own personal shuttle service and would drive us pretty much anywhere we wanted to go - very handy indeed.  The room also had some Yukata's for dressing up!

Our Japanese room

Our Japanese beds

Rob in his Yukata practising martial arts!

So after our first night spent lying on the floor traditional Japanese style (very comfortably though), we woke up to lots of fresh snow!  In a way this was what we had hoped for so that we could see snow monkeys in some proper snow!  So, we made our way to Jigokudani park and walked along the 1.6km snowy path to the entrance.

We were greeted by monkeys before we even got to the entrance gate and when we got in they were literally everywhere - playing, fighting, warming up in the hot bath or just digging around for food.  They were very entertaining and because it was absolutely freezing they tended to spend more time in the onsen (outdoor hot bath) which is what makes the place so interesting.  Some were trying to drown each other like naughty children and others just seemed to be meditating!  

After quite a few hours being entertained we took a slow walk back through the town to the hotel.  This was such a great experience as well with all the locals we passed saying Konnichiwa and everywhere just felt so laid back and safe.  Even some of the school children liked to practice their English and would say hello (and others would give us an odd look as we don't think have seen westerners before)!

That evening we went to a local Japanese restaurant.  We couldn't actually tell it was a restaurant from the outside - such was its disguise, that Mr Miagi, I mean Yumoto, actually drove us to it, even though it was only about a 2 minute walk from the accommodation!  When we got in, it was just like being in someone's kitchen / diner!  We were greeted by 2 very friendly Japanese guys who could speak a little English and it was quite fascinating just sitting there and taking it all in.  We ordered a couple of dishes and we weren't 100% sure exactly what we were going to get - as it turned out, we got plenty to eat the quality was really good - tempura shrimp and vegetables have never tasted so good!  It was a really good experience and it was nice as it seemed like they were so pleased we were there.

Day 2 at the monkey park!  After bumping into a couple of Aussies in town yesterday (who we thought were a bit odd), we saw them again this morning at the entrance to the park.  Now, bearing in mind a lot of snow had thawed since yesterday and the path to the park was much clearer, it seemed really weird that these 2 Aussies were kitting themselves out with tonnes of ice climbing gear - not sure what they were expecting, but should have told them that Mount Everest is in Nepal!  So off we toddled in our wellies and left them to it, after one of them said to Rob "thanks for noticing how prepared we are" - weirdos!

The monkey park today was a bit warmer and a lot of the snow from yesterday had gone.  This meant that the monkeys didn't spend as much time in the onsen, so they mainly entertained us with a floor show.  Very similar to yesterday really, but still very entertaining - they even come close enough to pull at your trousers!  One did get a bit grumpy with Rob though when he got a bit close - he has that affect on people as well!

After we'd had a few more hours at the snow monkey park and tried to get ourselves on the online webcam, we headed off to experience a Japanese onsen of our own - no monkeys in this one. Mr Miagi chauffeured us to a private onsen which overlooked the Japanese alps where we just relaxed and watched the sun go down.

That night we also experienced our first significant earthquake which was 5.1 magnitude. I actually did feel the earth move that night!  It did wake us up briefly and we did feel the house shake, but as it was the middle of the night and we were tired, we just turned over and went straight back to sleep!  We honestly thought it was a big truck going past - it wasn't until the next morning that Mr Yumoto told us it was definitely an earthquake and quite a big one too.  No damage done though which was the main thing.

Mr Yumoto took photos of us before we left (proper family portrait stylee!) and decorated our luggage with souvenir 5 yen ribbons (for safe onward travel) - it was a nice touch!

Mr & Mrs Yumoto

One of our many 5 yen ribbons wishing us a happy connection

So in short, we loved Yudanaka.  The whole experience was so different to what we originally thought it would be.  Mr & Mrs Yumoto were amazing, the locals were genuinely helpful, friendly, polite and respectful which was quite refreshing, and naturally the monkeys added to the memories.

So having feared the worst only a few days earlier, we were now on a real high and massively excited about what else Japan had to offer.  Next stop Osaka and a look at Japanese city life.....