Day 5: MONKEYS MONKEYS MONKEYS
I woke up early, and of course the first thing I did was check the snow monkey webcam. No monkeys. I was crestfallen, but told myself, I still have the entire morning before I have to check out. My ryokan served me a traditional japanese breakfast at 7:30. It had a lot of things that I wasn't sure what they were, but everything was good. A surprising amount of the meal was cold, which I wasn't expecting, heres what I think I was eating:. Sliced cured pork with some japanese potato salad. Salmon with some sort of sweet spongy fruit. Some slaw (maybe Gobo?) with shrimp. Marinated grilled bell peppers and eggplant. Steamed green beans, carrot, and something sort of sweet and chewy maybe like a mochi? No idea. Miso with a spongy lotus root. Rice of cours. Green Tea. It was all really delicious, even if I had no idea what I was eating half the time.
I checked the monkey cam again, without and luck and decided to spend a bit of my morning just laying in bed resting. I was texting my parents about wanting the monkeys to be there, when I checked the camera for the park and they were there! Lots of them! I quickly packed up all my stuff and talked to my host about checking out and leaving my stuff in storage, and him driving me to the monkeys. He obliged, and drove me up the road to see the monkeys. Its a 1.5km hike through the forest from the end of the road to the entrance of the monkey park, and I sped walked/skipped the entire way singing "monkeys monkeys monkeys I'm going to see the monkeys" over and over again. Luckily I was the only person on the trail, so nobody saw me looking insane.
I turned the last corner before the park, and I saw movement, monkeys climbing on the roof of a local inn! I squealed with glee. I happily made my way to the park, and as I walked around the entrance, a monkey on the roof of the information building jumped towards me and scared me so bad. I was not deterred though.
There were at least a hundred monkeys at the park. All over the place. You walk this narrow sidewalk in, and the monkeys walk right past you like you don't exist. It was kinda intimidating at first. Monkeys the size of a medium dog walking with purpose like you don't exist takes a minute. Especially the moms with babies and the larger males.
Soon though, I realized that they basically act like humans don't exist at all. It's like they've collectively decided we are a nuisance they put up with for some occasional feedings (grains given by the park staff) and to sit at the hot springs. We might as well have been flies for all they cared.
It was so fun to watch them all interact. The babies are so freaking adorable. They love to hug something, typically another tiny baby, but also a nearby pole if they have to. One grabbed a girl's leg then looked at her like "what the hell is that?" and walked away. She was overjoyed, it was indifferent.
Of the adults, it seems like the monkey troops are 90% female, 10% male. Its currently mating season and we watched a number of the males fight and chase each other off. Its quite loud and intense. You can tell when a male is in a mood because as he walks through the area all the monkeys give him a wide birth. They scatter and come back behind him to find a new seat. According the signs in the park, the females of the troops are all generally distant relatives, and they will stay in the same troop their entire lives. A couple males will join the troop, but generally don't stick around for more than a year or two. Male monkeys spend most of their lives alone in the forest, sometimes they will form small bands of all males, but those usually end up splitting with fights.The females seem to spend most of their day relaxing in the sun and grooming each other. The youngsters running around, barely with the mothers unless they are very very small.
Snow monkeys, or Japanese macaques, are the world's northernmost primate (obviously besides humans) they are the only primate that lives in areas that go below freezing.
Seeing them was such a dream come true, I remember seeing nature documentaries about them as a kid, and to get to see them in real life, in the wild, was magical.
It started to get pretty chilly through the day, rain and snow was forecasted for later in the day, so I decided to make my way back. I stopped at a cafe, and got a hot ginger tea and a sweet pizza with cream cheese, apples, honey, caramel biscotti, and apple gelato. It was incredible. Nagano is a big farming area, and it is known for its apples, they did not disappoint.
I then took the train to the next town over, and took the opportunity of sitting still for a few hours to get some work done with a view.
I made it to Nagano, and wen to the Zenko-ji, one of the important temples in Japan. It's a buddhist temple founded in the 7th century, and has the first Buddhist statue ever brought to Japan. There are a bunch of indoor passages and museums that I didn't get the opportunity to see because it closes early, but it was gorgeous on the outside. A pair of Nio Guardians ("wrathful and muscular guardians of the Buddha") guard the temple.
Leading up to the temple are a bunch of different vendors, including those of Oyaki!. Its a chewy baked dough (maybe rice flour?) with fillings inside, either sweet or savory. I got one with mushrooms and green onions, and one with chestnut. The mushroom one was incredible, but the chestnut one was just a little sweet for my liking, but the flavor was good.
After wandering a bit more I got dinner. I got a bento basket, described as "a variety of small dishes made with local, in-season ingredients". Once again, I really really didn't know what I was eating, but once again, it was really delicious. There was a fish (grilled sardine?) wrapped around some root with a pinkish ginger. A couple of seasoned rice balls. Tofu and shitake soup. Something that had the texture of a very wet sponge, was barely sweet, and soaked in a umami seasoning. A little square gel, soaked in a different liquid. And 3 sticks with really chewy/gummy and kinda sweet, but really flavorful blobs on them 3 different flavors dipped in different seasonings. I can't even describe what they tasted like. Very unusual, but very good. So many textures I don't think I've ever had before. For dessert they gave me homemade ice cream, black sesame and matcha flavor, both very subtle but delicious.
Then I made my frozen way to my airbnb for the night, ready to prepare for another day.
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