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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.

This is the beautiful view from my room. Isn't it awesome? Haha.


I left the hotel, put my suitcase in a coin locker in the station, and then went to Starbucks for breakfast. I had a mocha and a cinnamon roll. :)


I decided to go to Gyokusen-en Garden and then Kenrokuen again that morning. I wanted to spend a bit more time at Kenrokuen since I would probably not be back there again (it's so far!). This time I planned to not take very many pictures and just enjoy the garden.

So I finished my cinnamon roll and took the rest of my coffee with me. It was still a bit chilly outside, even in my jacket, but the warm coffee made it nice. :) But as I walked the sun came out and it got a lot warmer and I didn't need my jacket anymore. :)

I passed Oyama Shrine (the stained glass one) and took a picture of one of the smaller shrines there.


After a while I arrived at Gyokusen-en. It's a smaller garden across the street from Kenrokuen. The design and construction of it was started in the early Edo period (so the 1600s I guess). It's much much much smaller than Kenrokuen. You can walk through the entire thing in just a couple minutes. I don't think it gets many visitors since Kenrokuen, one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan, is just right across the street. Plus, it only costs 300 yen to visit Kenrokuen, but this garden costs 500 yen.

It's not as nice as Kenrokuen, but it was still cool to visit, especially since I was the only visitor there! I was there maybe about 20 minutes and I was the only person there until one more person came as I was leaving.


It looked a little bit more overgrown and wilder than Kenrokuen. It felt strange being there all alone, but in a good way. It was like I had stumbled upon a secret garden, though I hate calling anything a secret garden because I really hated that movie.




Then I headed back across the street to Kenrokuen.






After I left Kenrokuen (it was sad to leave!) I bought some melon ice cream. :)


When I got to the station I went to the "German" bakery for lunch. I got a roll with raisins and sweet potato chunks in it, onion pizza, and a sugar covered doughnut. When I sat down I realized I should not have gotten the doughnut. I had just had ice cream! Plus I had a cinnamon roll that morning! Oh well... I ate it anyway. :) It was delicious! Then I realized what it tasted like. It tasted just like the sugar doughnuts at Chinese buffets in America. :)



I have no idea what they're advertising.

On the train I drank my Minute Maid cassis and grape juice that I had bought earlier. Cassis is the French word for black currant. It pretty much tasted just like grape juice though.

It took a long time to get there. From this area, there's not a very direct route. I had to go west to Maibara (between Nagoya and Kyoto) and then go north. There isn't a Shinkansen that reaches Kanazawa (there will be in 2014, though it will be from Nagano so it wouldn't have helped anyway) so I had to take a slow train. I took an express train that skipped a lot of stations, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.



Here was my itinerary for the day:

• 6:59 - 7:45 Toi -> Shuzenji (bus)
• 7:54 - 8:30 Shuzenji -> Mishima (train)
• 8:59 - 11:15 Mishima -> Maibara (shinkansen)
• 11:59 - 1:51 Maibara -> Kanazawa (train)

It was about seven hours of traveling! Though it's not really that bad. I would hate to spend 7 hours on a plane. Even in a car seven hours is pretty bad. I don't mind the trains as much. Plus, in between the different trains I can walk around the stations and buy snacks and stuff.

Sometimes I actually really enjoy the trains. I sit and enjoy the scenery or just relax and listen to music on my ipod or play video games on my DS. But that day the view was just not that great. It looked pretty gross actually. Here's a view from Mishima Station.


After several hours I reached Maibara and then took the train north to Kanazawa. I had been looking forward to this train ride because I'd get to see a part of Japan I hadn't seen yet. However, the view was mostly very boring. It was rice fields, and more rice fields, and even more rice fields. Oh, and tunnels too.


By the time I reached Kanazawa I was very glad to get off the train, but I wasn't too excited to be there. But as soon as I exited the ticket gate at the station I started to get excited. The station had stores and restaurants and was pretty lively. I walked through the shopping area and was entertained by the 90s pop music they were playing. As I stood in a bookstore I heard them played Lucky by Britney Spears. A middle aged Japanese man walked by and was humming along with the song quite loudly. I was very entertained.

The station exit is really cool.




This clock was super cool. The numbers are made up of many tiny fountains! :) It also displays messages such as "Welcome to Kanazawa."


My hotel was right next to the station, but check-in time wasn't until 3:00 (and as you can see it was 2:04) so I wandered around the station, picked up an English map of Kanazawa, and ate at Doutor, a coffee shop. I had cinnamon and brown sugar banana chips, a roasted chicken calzone, and an iced latte.


After eating I still had a bit of time left so I went and purchased my Shirakawa-go bus tickets for the next day. By the time I finished that it was about 3:00 so I went and checked into the hotel.

The room was a little bigger than I was expecting. I had been expecting it to be a little smaller. I guess I'm more used to the hotels in Tokyo. However, this room does not have a shower, so I had to use the onsen. If I had not been to the onsen a few a weeks ago I probably would not have chosen this room, but now I'm okay with that. I would want to go to the onsen anyway so I really didn't need my own shower.




I didn't spend too much time in the hotel room and soon I headed out to go to Kenrokuen. It was gray outside, but it wasn't raining. It was a bit chilly though. I wore a jacket! Just a couple weeks ago that would have been crazy. I was still sweating like crazy a couple weeks ago. Now I need a jacket!

On my way to Kenrokuen I passed Oyama Shrine. I had wanted to visit this shrine and didn't know that it would be on my way to the garden.


It's a really unique shrine because it has elements of Japanese, Chinese, and European architecture. See the stained glass at the top?

There was a small garden by the shrine and it was really pretty! I loved the wooden walkway across the water.


Outside of Kenrokuen are many shops. I didn't go to any then because it was a little after 4 and Kenrokuen closed at 6.



Kenrokuen was beautiful! No matter which way you turn there is a great view, so I took a ton of pictures.

The information in the brochure I received is a little hard to follow, but the garden was developed between the 1670s and 1820s. It is now covers about 25 acres.


That is the oldest fountain in Japan. It uses the water pressure from the higher pond in the garden.


The lantern on the right is the Kotojitoro Lantern. It is the symbol of the garden.



They really do a lot to support the trees. These supports are seen year round, but the garden is also famous for its yukitsuri, which protect the trees from heavy snow.







I uploaded more pictures of the garden on facebook, so be sure to check out the link I put at the end of this post.

As I walked through the garden the sun began to come out. The weather had been great for visiting because it wasn't hot and I was really comfortable in my jacket. The overcast sky was actually good too because it was good lightning for my pictures. But the sunshine towards the end was nice after seeing gray skies all day! :)

I left at 6:00 because it was closing. I would have liked to spend a little more time, but I still got to see everything.

I headed back towards the hotel. Near the garden was a different hotel and it had something really shiny outside. I got distracted.


This is the moat around Kanazawa Castle, which is across the street from Kenrokuen.


I took a slightly different route to go back to the hotel. I liked this tree lined street.


It led to the main shopping district. I passed by a McDonalds. I was planning on grabbing some food at a konbini on the way back to the hotel, but I saw a sign for the Happy Meal (Oops, I mean Hapi Setto!) toys.


They're taiko drums from the taiko game I have for my DS. They're so cute! I couldn't pass them up! They had four different ones available (the top four) and I got to pick the one I wanted, so I chose the pink one! :) Haha, this is kind of sad isn't it? Does this sound like a blog written by a little kid? Oh well, lol.




It took about half an hour to walk back to the station. This is what part of the station looked like. It was so empty! Actually this is underneath the front plaza area of Kanazawa Station. I think this underground part is actually a different station.


It had a cool waterfall.