Happy Easter! We got up at 7:30 am and I set up Easter breakfast with the eggs I had dyed at school on Wednesday with my English club. E and K put their bags directly in my car so we didn’t have to worry about stopping at home to pick them up. Our first destination was Jigokudani Monkey Park about 1 hour and 50 minutes away, but we had to stop at Nagano Station first for the JR passes. It was my first time in Nagano City and it had a stunning overview of the snow capped Nagano alps near where Hakuba is. The station was really nicely designed as well. Sadly I didn’t bring my temple book so I decided not to stop by Zenkoji temple there. We also stopped for gas and supplies, but getting lunch at a typical Japanese chain place, Sukiya. First time for me and it was all right.
We got to the monkey park at about 12:30 pm. It was much less busy than last time and really muddy! So much warmer out! There were almost no monkeys bathing but many grooming on the pathways and running around, playing. The little baby monkeys playing and being groomed were the cutest! I then drove us another 2 hours through the mountains to Kusatsu. Sadly the shortcut road is still closed for winter stuff, but at least I knew where to drive this time! There was still a little snow on the ground and people skiing on the last bits. I parked at the bank in Kusatsu as it’s Sunday and closed - free parking yay - and we walked through the shrine down to the city center. So I got a Shinto shrine visit in for Easter instead of church? The sulfur smelled much less strongly this time and there were many people walking around in their yukatas.
We also tried sesame ice cream, and onsen manju along the way to Sainokawara Park. While we were there, it started snowing! We sat with our feet in the foot bath with snowflakes falling all around us. I thought it especially crazy for E and K because they had just come from Okinawa and the beach life. We started the last leg of the journey, another 2 hours back to Takasaki. We got there shortly before 8 pm and stopped at Kappa Sushi for some conveyor belt sushi for dinner. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. I dropped them off at the station at 9:15 pm so they could catch their shinkansen to Sendai. It was so much fun showing them around even if our time was cut short and we had to do a lot of driving in one day. Plus I got to speak German for a day!
Happy Easter! We got up at 7:30 am and I set up Easter breakfast with the eggs I had dyed at school on Wednesday with my English club. E and K put their bags directly in my car so we didn’t have to worry about stopping at home to pick them up. Our first destination was Jigokudani Monkey Park about 1 hour and 50 minutes away, but we had to stop at Nagano Station first for the JR passes. It was my first time in Nagano City and it had a stunning overview of the snow capped Nagano alps near where Hakuba is. The station was really nicely designed as well. Sadly I didn’t bring my temple book so I decided not to stop by Zenkoji temple there. We also stopped for gas and supplies, but getting lunch at a typical Japanese chain place, Sukiya. First time for me and it was all right.
We got to the monkey park at about 12:30 pm. It was much less busy than last time and really muddy! So much warmer out! There were almost no monkeys bathing but many grooming on the pathways and running around, playing. The little baby monkeys playing and being groomed were the cutest! I then drove us another 2 hours through the mountains to Kusatsu. Sadly the shortcut road is still closed for winter stuff, but at least I knew where to drive this time! There was still a little snow on the ground and people skiing on the last bits. I parked at the bank in Kusatsu as it’s Sunday and closed - free parking yay - and we walked through the shrine down to the city center. So I got a Shinto shrine visit in for Easter instead of church? The sulfur smelled much less strongly this time and there were many people walking around in their yukatas.
No comments:
Post a Comment