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The day after skiing, Jonathan and I headed back to Tokyo and stopped by Matsumoto Castle. I still wasn't feeling well that morning. I had wanted to go to the other onsen at the hotel, but I couldn't. Though Jonathan went to the better one that morning for the first time and said that the other one wasn't nearly as nice. So I didn't really miss much, but it will would have been nice.

We ate breakfast at the hotel and I was still nauseous and couldn't eat much. For some reason anything Japanese was sounding really gross right then. So I think mostly just ate some mixed fruit. Even that wasn't very appetizing right then either. It's too bad because the breakfast was really nice and had a lot of choices.

By the time we left the hotel I was feeling quite a bit better. I think actually eating something helped. Jonathan took some pictures as we walked to the station.

 



Yudanaka is a small station, but they play dramatic music when the trains arrive. When you get off the train it sounds like you're arriving at a theme park or something.


We had good timing and were able to take an express train. It was only 100 yen more and it went all the way to Nagano (we would have had to switch once on the regular train) and took about 25 minutes less. Plus the train had the nicer forward-facing seats. Oh and it was Monster Hunter (a video game) themed on the outside. I've never played those games and it's not cute but I still always appreciate decorated trains. I'm surprised it was only 100 yen more.



Forty-five minutes later we arrived in Nagano. We went into a small store in the station so that Jonathan could buy some omiyage to take to school. I typically don't since I have several schools and it's too expensive to buy stuff for everyone. I bought some things for myself though. 


Country Ma'am is a common brand of cookies here and they're tasty even though I have always hated the word "ma'am." When working in stores I hated everytime I was called ma'am. Of course I know they were just being polite and it was better than many other things I've been called in retail jobs. It just seemed like they were calling me old or something, lol. I also was kind of creeped out when people called me by my name. I know it was my name tag, and again maybe they were just trying to be nice, but it was still kind of freaky, haha. And annoying when they didn't even pronounce it right.

Anyways... these were apple flavored and they were yummy. I also got a package of instant soba with Nagano's mascot on the package. Also yummy!

The next local train to Matsumoto wasn't for about an hour. There were several express trains, but we couldn't take those with our cheap (but awesome) Seishun Juhachi tickets.

I was starting to feel hungry and had seen a Lotteria in a shopping building near the station. For some reason anything Japanese was still sounding bad to me. Don't ask me why when I had been feeling nauseous a hamburger and fries seemed good but it was delicious and didn't make me feel bad.

After we finished eating, I went to the bathroom (and got distracted by a few stores on the way). While I was gone Jonathan went to a flower shop right next to the table we had eaten at. He then surprised me with some really pretty flowers! They smelled amazing, too. They smelled just like spring! Really... I have a Bath and Body Works candle called "Spring" and these smelled like that.


These flowers were bought about three weeks ago and most of them have dried out and been thrown away, but the yellow ones still look great!

The train from Nagano to Matsumoto took about an hour and a half (the express trains that we couldn't ride only take about half that time). But it was a beautiful train ride. 



We took some video during our train rides to Nagano and Matsumoto.



Our plan was to put our luggage in lockers at the station, but all of the bigger lockers were full. I was at least able to put my backpack and flowers in a smaller one, but we had to roll our luggage to Matsumoto Castle. 



Matsumoto Castle was built in the 1500s and it's still the original castle (unlike many castles in Japan), though some gates around the castle have been rebuilt.

Of course we couldn't take our luggage into the castle, so we took turns going into the castle. It's too bad that we couldn't see it together, but at least we still both got to go in. 


 


The last staircase to the top was really steep!



I'm glad that we were able to go there because it's kind of out the way from anywhere else I want to visit, but it's between Nagano and Tokyo so it was perfect. When I was feeling sick I thought I might have to take  shinkansen trains all the way back to Iwata the next day and skip out on Matsumoto and Tokyo. Luckily that didn't happen though!

From Matsumoto it took about five hours to get to our hotel in Akihabara. I started feeling bad again towards the end though.

The next day after the monkey park we went skiing at Shiga Kogen, which is a huge skiing area. It has like 70-something ski lifts. The pictures here are from the bus ride. I don't have any of where we actually skied.  



 

The bus ride was really pretty and I enjoyed it until we got stuck in traffic for a little bit because of a car that I think had broken down. I didn't really mind waiting there and that wasn't the problem. But when we finally were able to go (maybe just about five minutes later, it wasn't long) we had to pass the car and the bus went soooo close to the edge and that was kind of freaky.


We eventually got off the bus at Hasuike because we had read that it was good for beginners. We bought our lift tickets there and got our rental stuff. I was excited that I had pink skis with flowers on them.

Then we went outside and tried to find where the actual skiing was. We walked towards where we thought it was and then put our skis on for a little bit. I had trouble just getting them on and then a lot of trouble just skiing on flat ground. But we were in the wrong area and it ended up being where a more difficult course was. We went back to the building we had come from and I asked for directions. The girl there told me that Hasuike and Maruike were the easiest courses and told me how to get to them. We walked around for quite a while and still couldn't find the actual Hasuike course. So then we just took the bus to Maruike. We waited a while for that and it when we rode the bus it wasn't even that far at all and we could have easily walked (well, sort of... I hated walking around in the stupid ski boots). At least it was a free shuttle bus though.

I had trouble just getting to the ski lift. I couldn't even ski on flat ground. It took a lot more upper body strength than I thought it would. I slowly made my way to the ski lift but it just got worse from there. I dropped my poles when getting on the ski lift and then fell out getting out of the ski lift. It was really hard to get up with skis on. Then the beginning of the course was probably the biggest hill of the course and it was difficult and I tried going down it by going side to side but I kept falling. Eventually I just had to take the skis of and slide down.

The rest of the course wasn't as bad, but I still kept falling a lot and it just wasn't fun at all. I was getting really really worn out every time I fell and had to get up again and felt super sore. Though at the very end of the course I actually started getting the hang of it and was able to turn about five or six times without falling. It still wasn't fun though.

By then I was feeling really tired and hungry so we got lunch at a restaurant there. We got some chips and pizza. The pizza wasn't very good and didn't have enough sauce and I didn't like the green peppers or mushrooms on it. Usually I like mushrooms but they just weren't appetizing right then. I didn't eat much pizza. I was hungry but everything seemed so unappetizing right then. I couldn't even really eat chips and they were just normal chips.

I then waited in that building for a little while while Jonathan went out and skied a little bit more. I started getting really really cold because my clothes were kind of wet, but I was feeling really ridiculously cold and shivering badly. So when Jonathan got back I wanted to let him ski a little more but I really just needed to get out of there. I offered to go back to the hotel by myself and let him stay there but he didn't want to do that.

So it turned out that was I was just getting sick and I think I had a fever. So that's probably partially why I was feeling so weak when skiing. Also I felt super sore when skiing and was sure that it would just be worse later, how it usually is with exercise, but later I wasn't sore. So I think I was more just aching from a fever.

I don't think I would really enjoy skiing anyways, but I think it was just extra bad timing then. I felt kind of nauseous the rest of the day and off and on for the next few days. Though I felt better for a little while that evening and Jonathan and I were able to play table tennis.

So yeah... that was my super fun day of skiing!

We spent Christmas day traveling to Nagano. It was a long boring day on trains. We got on the train in Oimachi (where our hotel in Tokyo was) a little after 10 and arrived at Yudanka Station around 6:30.

Before leaving Tokyo we picked up a few snacks at 7-Eleven. I saw these Mountain Dew corn snacks (basically Moutain Dew flavored Cheetos) and couldn't resist.



I actually ended up just eating other things and never got around to eating these until I was back home. They weren't terrible and I ate them all, but they weren't good. They actually did taste like Mountain Dew, which I like, but it just wasn't a good Cheetos flavor. Towards the end I got a bunch of the flavor powder and it was kind of sour.  

As we went further north we eventually started seeing some snow.



There were also some pretty views of Mt. Fuji.

Somewhere between Matsumoto and Nagano we had a really beautiful view of the mountains at sunset. This picture doesn't quite capture it though.


We eventually reached Nagano and there was little bit of snow on the ground, but not much. We then took a train to Yudanaka Station in Yamanouchi which took about an hour. A couple of stations before Yudanaka we started seeing a lot more snow outside. Yay!

After 8 different trains and 8 and a half hours of traveling we finally arrived in Yamanouchi . It was dark, but the next morning we were able to see the beautiful view from the hotel.


That evening we picked up some food from Lawson and played table tennis at the hotel. We had never played table tennis against each other and we were pretty evenly matched so it was a lot of fun.

The next morning, after enjoying a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to Jigokudani Monkey Park. We went to the station to take a bus but there wasn't another bus coming for about an hour and a half so we took a taxi. It only took about 10 minutes.

The taxi dropped us off near the entrance to the trail. There was a really cute shrine near there. It was so pretty in the snow!




It took about half an hour to walk from the start of the trail to where the monkeys are. It was a really pretty trail and very nice even if I did slip and fall a couple of times.




I never noticed a better one to get a nicer picture, but that's the manhole cover of Yamanouchi.



Such a winter wonderland! :)



Finally we saw some monkeys! The little ones were so fuzzy and cute!


Jigokudani is most famous for the Japanese Macaque monkeys bathing in the hot spring. It's really neat to see! There weren't that many monkeys in the onsen but overall I saw more monkeys than I expected.



Many of the monkeys were digging around in the snow to find food. 


They mostly ignored all of the people. They weren't shy and almost seemed like they were sometimes posing for pictures.





 

The little babies were so cute! I loved seeing them ride around on their mothers' backs. 

Here's a video of the monkeys! :)




We took a bus back to the station and then got a late lunch at Lawson. We tried to go back to the hotel to eat it, but there was a sign on the door and it was closed. I think they were just out picking someone up at the station or taking care of something. We probably could have waited just a few minutes but we went back towards the station and ate our lunch in a gazebo near there. It was a bit cold but not too bad.

Then later we went to the hotel's onsen, which was amazing. The main onsen was for women until 9:30 and then at 10 it was for men. So I got to go to the main onsen. It was exciting as soon as I stepped into the changing room.


Photos aren't allowed in the onsen, so I got these pictures online. I think at least some of them are from Yorozuya's website. 


After washing I spent a little time in the indoor bath. I couldn't really see anything in there because of all the steam. It was still nice though.

Then I headed outside to the outdoor onsen and it was beautiful!


The feeling of being outside in the cold in a hot bath is wonderful! The scenery was amazing as well. There was a nice waterfall and snow on some of the surrounding plants. Perfect!


That evening we also went out to eat at a small restaurant. There weren't many options there and we found that one on an English restaurant guide pamphlet at the station. I had curry udon which was really good, but I think I may have gotten food poisoning from it because I felt bad for a few days after that.