Jigokudani Yaenkoen: Snow Monkey Park

On Sunday we caught a bus back to Nagano in the morning and caught another bus to Kanbayashi Onsen Guchi to see the snow monkeys that bathe in an onsen. There are two options for seeing the snow monkeys, which are actually macaques. You can do a tour for about $50 per person or you can go yourself. There is a one day snow monkey pass for a bit over $30 per person that includes transport to and from the monkey park and entry to the park. 

Snow day like a ski day

On Thursday it rained. Oh it rained. ALL day it rained. It was very depressing. Although I did finish a book I had started the day before. We decided we would take the free shuttle to Goryu, a nearby mountain, on Friday to test out it's slopes.

Snow and a private Onsen: Hakuba

Day two of our skiing time and we are both stuffed! I'm not a very good boarder yet, and so there have been plenty of frustrated moments on the mountain. We have been skiing at Happo, which is the closest mountain to where we are staying. Because it is the end of the season there is only one other guest at our hotel. What that means is we basically get free run of things. I'm pretty sure during high season they run shuttles to town at particular times. We can just chose a time and a restaurant and get dropped off as we wish. So nice!

Spectacular views on the way down