Dark Night

Last days, determined sightseeing

My grandpa is the best. From the train, we caught the hotel shuttle to the Tsugaike resort. There are nine resorts in Hakuba, and Grandpa had chosen Tsugaike because it caters to beginners. It's a little farther away, but the entire base of the groomed areas are bunny hills.  There are only two runs for experienced skiers, and only one went top to bottom. We checked into Hotel Belle-Cour Inomata, which has ski-up access. Then we went to rent snowboards, boots, and clothes; we both had nice warm gloves that would do, and we bought goggles. The hotel had recommended instructors, and we spent the afternoon out on the hill. I picked it up easily; it was a piece of cake compared to skateboarding. Grandpa had a little more difficulty, but he was comfortable by the end of the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and my enjoyment was enhanced by the fact that our instructor was pretty cute. We stopped for dinner and to do a little shopping; the hotel had natural hot springs which would come in handy after skiing, but we needed swimming suits. But before the relaxing, we went back on the slopes to snowboard for a few hours on the part of the resort that was lit for the night. Then we relaxed in the hot springs.

"We have a choice, punkin. I'd planned to go to Mt. Fiji for one day, but we could trade that day for an extra day here. I'm having a lot of fun and I think you are too."

"Would you mind missing Mt. Fiji?" I asked.

"Not really," he said. "It seemed like it would be nice to see, it's certainly culturally important, but we've primarily been sightseeing, and this is something fun and active. I'm enjoying it even more than I thought I would." So that was that. We stayed an extra day, and by the end, we were taking the run through the trees from the very top. It was a beginner run, but we had a great time and didn't mind wiping out occasionally. I also ventured out onto some intermediate runs, which were challenging. The hot springs were handy and relaxing.

The next day we joined a tour to nearby Jigokudani Wild Monkey park on the other side of Nagano by Yamanouchi. It was about a kilometer and a half walk in, about twenty minutes, pretty in the forest with all the snow and not steep, and we saw some of the snow monkeys  before we even got to the hot springs. They were really cute. The rangers fed them to keep them happy, healthy, and a draw for the tourists, so they were unperturbed by people showing up. They weren't trained, though, and were a little skittish if approached too closely. The monkeys are actually Japanese macaques and have long dense fur and red faces. They also sat on the edge of the hot springs and they came and went behind the tourists, so you could see them just hanging out on the bridges, walkways, and railings and doing their thing. They groomed each other and were very social. Some mothers had babies, which were absolutely adorable. We stopped at the gift shop for a little memento, and Grandpa also bought Shichimi spice mix, which is a seven spice blend unique to the area. We had oyaki, a steamed bun filled with vegetables that is a specialty of Nagano prefecture, for a delicious lunch before returning to Nagano and catching the bullet train to Tokyo.

This time we did not go the capsule hotel route, checking in at the Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku instead, which had lovely rooms you could stand up in and private bathrooms. I was glad to have had the experience at the capsule hotel, but once was enough. We ventured out for some off-the-beaten path things, including getting coffee in a cat cafe. There were a lot of seats, a lot of cat furniture, and an enormous assortment of cats, all sizes, colors, and breeds. We were swarmed when we bought some food to lure them, but otherwise they were typically cats, deciding when they wanted to be petted, and it was nice to see everybody respecting the cats who wanted alone time. There were plenty who were up for interaction and to play with the toys, and it was great to get a cat fix. Kids under twelve were not allowed, which made it nice and peaceful for the cats. We kept seeing places selling "Tokyo Bananas" so we bought one to try. I'm not a big fan of bananas, but every place we saw that sold them had people buying them so we thought what the heck. It's banana cream filling in a banana sponge cake shaped like a big Twinkie and it was surprisingly delicious.