Voyage Junkie

The resplendent view from the window of our train, as we headed back to Gifu on 12/28.

Above: the view from our hotel room.  We overlooked the train station and some night life. This is an actual double-decker bus we found as we wandered around Nagano city one night.  I personally love the posters on the front for "Phantom" and "Les Mis."  It pretends to be a British pub restaurant, although I think most British people would cringe to see how their food and drink has been Japanified.  Corn and mayo on everything! Although, on second thought, maybe that improves British food? This building to the right is a post office/bank, denoted by the bright orange flags and T-shaped symbols on the signage.  I was drawn to the design of the building.  It reminds me of America's old-fashioned public office buildings that hold so much charm and history.  This building hearkens back to traditional Japanese aesthetics and architecture in much the same way. We stayed two nights in Nagano city, and we found a great Vietnamese restaurant ...

On our last full day in Nagano, we went to the city's local treasure, the Zenkou-ji.  It's a fantastically old temple, originally built sometime in the 7th century.  The temple still functions as a pilgrimage destination for devout followers.  I liked the dark base of the buildings paired with the glimmering gold touches, seen in the picture of the main shrine building to the left. The temple complex was small, but filled to the brim with buildings, gardens, statues, gods and goddesses, relics, etc.  There was a particularly lovely stone lantern garden, that is noted by temple connoisseurs.  Inside the temple was a very old wooden healer statue that everyone rubbed for health, which Matt (as the son of a doctor) found ironic.  We didn't touch him. Here's a few beautiful examples of the many architectural details on the main temple.  To the left is an incredibly fat fu -dog, or temple guardian.  To the right is the view across the front of t...

The next day (12/27) we traveled to a little mountain town and trekked into a part of an extended valley named Jigokudani Koen , or Hell's Valley Park, named for its resplendent hot springs that boil away even in frigid temperatures.  It was gorgeous, although we did get a lot of snow dumped on our heads along the way. We went to this snowy, steamy place with one objective: seeing Japanese Macaques, or Snow Monkeys.  These monkeys live in the mountains and come down to bathe in the hot springs almost every day.  In the winter they are very fluffy in their heavy coats.  There were monkeys of all ages jostling each other for space in the springs and the food the park workers put out at noon. Here are a few of the best pictures of the monkeys in the springs.  You can see all the little family groups among the larger group.  These monkeys are all part of one pack.  There are about 200 of them at present.  There's always an alpha ...

On December 26th, in a flurry of snow, we boarded a train for Nagano Prefecture.  What can we say?  We were hit by longing for mountains - real mountains - and couldn't resist.  On a whim, we found lodging in Nagano City for a few nights, bought waterproof boots, and embarked on the nori-hodai  trip. It was actually much snowier in Gifu and Nagoya than it was in the mountains of Nagano prefecture.  This was welcome news, because if it had been very snowy we might have had to cancel our trip.  The lightly frosted mountains were lovely, rising into clouds of fog that obscured their true heights. One of my students, upon finding out I love visiting the castles, told me that I absolutely had to visit Matsumoto Castle.  The city of Matsumoto is on the way to Nagano city, so we made visiting it our first day's itinerary.  The city itself is clean, bright, and prosperous, with many interesting museums we intend to visit in the near future.  It...