We could have bathed again this morning, but didn’t want to get up that early. We took a bunch of photos in our yukata. I was wearing a pink one and A a green one. After going down for breakfast, we found out the green one is only for men, and A had to switch to the pink. The faces of the staff cracked me up. They were so shocked! I personally can’t see the big deal… The only difference is the color. So in all our photos, A is wearing “men’s” clothes.

Breakfast was amazing. What a spread. And so much food! I could barely finish it all. During breakfast, they put our futons away. When we went back up to the room, they had locked it! Oops, we had left it open with the key inside the room. Tis was an easy fix though with lots of apologies on both sides. We checked out and they gave us directions towards the monkey park. She helped carry our things back to the car and even waited outside for a bit in the cold! I had to defrost my car first, so I’m glad she finally went back inside.

Another wonderful sunny day. The road up to Jigokudani was rather narrow. We stopped to talk to the parking attendant who actually had a sign written in English since he couldn’t speak it. We had to park a big further away at the Roman museum because the other parking lots were already full! We got here at 9:30 am and the place only opened at 9 am! The amount of tourists was crazy. There was only a tiny bit of snow on the ground, some leftovers. The walk to the park takes about thirty minutes through the woods. There are some informative signs about the Japanese macaques along the way. The Jigokudani ryokan was nestled picturesquely by the river. Here we spotted our first monkeys! Beyond the entrance gate was a small gift shop, and two walkways. One headed to the main hot pool, and the other down the riverbed where normal cold water flowed. There were monkeys everywhere, running around, and climbing high on the opposite bank of the river up the mountain. I even got to see baby ones! One mother was carrying two, one her back and one hanging under her stomach.

The pool area was massively crowded with people sticking their cameras into the monkey’s faces. I don’t know how they could relax, but there were some digging for food, and grooming and bathing. Their positions and faces looked so blissful. It was pretty cold out, my hands growing numb quickly. I’m glad I wore so many layers, but A had much less clothes. We went into the gift shop to huddle by the kerosene heater. I ended buying some postcards with the monkey’s snow hats. Sadly, we didn’t have enough snow to see that. I also bought apple Kit-Kats back at the bottom gift shop and a wall hanging with bathing monkeys.

We finished at 12:30 pm ish and got lunch at a restaurant right by the parking area. I had this fantastic salad with sashimi salmon in in. Yum, yum. We had to share a table with another couple, since everyone was stopping there to eat. We decided not to walk around this onsen town area, but instead to head directly to Kusatsu. The way back was much better! No turn arounds. Took us a little under 2 hours. We first stopped by the tourist info center to grab a map and check out the observatory where you got a great view of Mt. Asama.

We parked at a public lot near the center of the city and walked around. First stop, a shrine. We descended the stairs to Yubatake (Hot Water Field) where 5000 liters per minute pours out of the source. The air was filled a light scent of fresh eggs as it’s a sulfuric source. The water is at pH 2.1 here! The colors were stunning until the wind blew a wave of egg fog into my face and I couldn’t breathe. We stopped at a cafe in this area to get a cake set - cake and tea - and warm up a little. As soon as we were back in Gunma, the wind made itself known. Brrr. We meandered through the streets past all the shops. A ended up buying some yummy flavoured honey. I got some phone straps and socks with Gunma-chan bathing.

By now, it started to get dark outside and the light decorations were turned on. More picture time! I let our airbnb host know that we were on our way. Google did a poor job of directing us though. Took us down a tiny road that was blocked off for pedestrians only. I had to turn around in a narrow alley, but A helped by going outside the car. Finally, we made it out. The next obstacle was a steep hill. I pulled over to park by a temple entrance. The airbnb was part of the temple grounds. Our host came out and welcomed us and directed me to where I could park. This required me to drive further up the hill, back into her narrow driveway. I’m horrible at reverse driving, absolutely horrible. She moved her car and I somehow maneuvered backwards into the parking spot in her garage. I parked too close to the wall and since I’d have to climb over the other seat to get out, she moved her other car as well so I could re-park my car. Phew! And all in the dark hills.

Our host was really welcoming. We put on our guest slippers as she showed us the indoor baths with hot water from the source! She led us to our large tatami room with a kotatsu and the futons all laid out. It was like staying at a ryokan, but so much cheaper, haha. There were even snacks set out and a tv. First onsen stop, Otaki no Yu, one of the top baths in Kusatsu. It was only a freezing 7 minute walk from our place. It was a big onsen, really nice. After pre-washing and soaking in the main indoor and outdoor pool, we went to the other side where there are five pools of different temperatures. The onsen I’ve been in were all 42-45 C. The first pool was lukewarm, the second comfortable enough for me to hang out in, but too cold for A. The third was a great temp and thus crowded like the fourth. I tried to get in the fifth and made it for less than 30 seconds. I felt like my skin was burning off! It was so hot! The water from the source was about 70 C from the source! The internet tells me the hottest one was 46 C, but there’s no way because I can handle 45 C. Post bath, I got strawberry ice cream to enjoy a milk product. We stopped at 7-Eleven on the way back for dinner supplies and crashed in our futons. All the layers.