Monkey Business

Canadian Thanksgiving coincided with Japan's "sports day", so I got a long weekend even though I am far from home. Thinking that it was a good opportunity for some solo travel, I headed to Nagano for the weekend to get some fresh air and mountain scenery. I consulted my trusty Lonely Planet and found that just outside of Nagano, in Yudanaka, there is an onsen...FOR MONKEYS!



Yes, that's right. Its not just humans that enjoy relaxing in the hot springs.



My goal was to touch, hug, and maybe kidnap one. But since the pamphlet I got said I couldn't do any of those things, I resorted to taking lots of pictures. Below are some of my favs.

Mange la Monja (pardon my french)

This weekend we had dinner in nearby Kamioka with a group of locals that we've met here. On the menu was "monja" which is a pancake batter that is cooked on a hotplate at the table.

The hotplate

Batter being poured on the hotplate

The batter is then divided and toppings are added.

Italian and curry!

Soy sauce and kimchi!

Once the batter is semi-cooked, you use your little spatula to separate out small sections. You push the small sections of batter into the hotplate to speed up the cooking.



We also had some delicious takoyaki (fried balls of octopus). Yum!

Onsen Love

Since it was a pretty busy week at work, a low key weekend was just what the doctor ordered. Satoko and I escaped the dorm and headed to a diner in town for a filling lunch of shrimp and fries. Then we headed to an onsen.

An onsen is a hot spring where people go to communally bathe and generally relax. Onsens are kept at a hot temperature and contain minerals. The onsen we went to had a bubbly pool, a still pool, and an outdoor pool. All of the pools had a great view of the mountains and river. There was also a cold water pool and a a sauna. After we were finished bathing, we drank chocolate milk and sat in massage chairs. There were also rooms to watch TV and to nap.

I didn't take any pictures of the onsen since I thought I might cause a bit of a stir bringing a camera into a room full of naked people, but it looked something like the picture below (courtesy of Wikipedia).



I have to admire the Japanese people's attitude of working hard and playing hard. It seems that in general people put in a lot of long, hard hours at work but then there are places like this that exist purely for relaxation. I think I will definitely be a returning customer.