Snow Monkeys!

Guess who's running behind... again? still? I'm actually surprised I'm still doing this. A nap sounds so much better than writing right now.
Anyway, this post is for the weekend of 3/29 when Will, the Rascal, and I went on an MWR tour to see Japanese Snow Monkeys.
First I should talk about our new Friday evening activity. At 6:30 every Friday night Will and I attend a conversational Japanese class here in Yokosuka that is taught by one of our Go instructors. His English is not great and the problem is compounded by the fact that, being engineers, Will and I ask (apparently) really hard questions, frequently frustrating him. Who here knows what a "particle" is? They're used in just about every sentence in Japanese language, but I certainly don't remember having a shape for them when diagramming sentences back in middle school.
The other really confusing thing is counting in Japanese. They have a different way of counting depending on what it is you're counting. In other words, there are more ways to count than you can count. Ok, so it's actually really interesting, but I'm going to move on.

The snow monkey tour (and actually all MWR tours) leaves really early in the morning - like 4AM early. So the Rascal braved the rush hour trains to come down to Yokosuka for the night to get up early for the tour. I really hate getting up early, but we managed to make it just in time for the bus and tried to sleep for the 5 hour ride to Jigoku-Dani in the Nagano Prefecture, nestled in the Japanese Alps a little north of Mt. Fuji. Luckily we stopped a couple times on the way and at the last stop I fueled up on some sweet Mt. Rainier Caffe Latte.

We reached our destination around 8AM and got out for the 30min hike. I really had no idea what to expect, except that I'd heard you get to watch snow monkeys bathing and you might get muddy.

After hiking past lots of cedar trees, neat cliffs and waterfalls, we reached the entrance to the park.



Climbing these stairs we rounded a corner and suddenly the tour guide starts freaking out, "I looked him in the eye!!" as I look up to see a monkey feint at her.
I'm starting to wonder what I've gotten myself into as a whole parade of monkeys comes out from behind a shed, right in front of our group. We all stop to watch them pass, frantically snap pictures of our first encounter, and hesitantly move on.


Continuing along the trail we pass a small cluster of houses on the other side of the stream we've been following and I look over to see a scene straight out of a movie with monkeys climbing all over the rooftops!

I suppose it's better than rats....


After a few more close encounters we finally come to the main attraction: a hot spring with an entire (herd, pack, gaggle?) of monkeys bathing.


























Looks pretty nice, huh?


We spent at least an hour watching the monkeys... uh... monkey around. Pretty cute. I think I have about 75 pictures of monkeys and some video.
















Markus loves him some monkeys.



















Here's a gratuitous pic of me, wishing I could hop in and join the fun.




On the way back, I didn't see it, but a local (and by that I mean a Japanese person as opposed to a gaijin) got into a fight with a monkey. I missed it, but both Will and the Rascal were witnesses. Apparently this little guy wanted the poor lady's walking stick. She was feisty though and was eventually able to shake him off.

















Despite our now vast experience being up close and personal with monkeys taking a bath, the Rascal and I are still a bit cautious in getting too close. You don't want to accidentally catch his eyes!!








And, of course, the obligatory monkey pictures!






































Next stop on the tour is Matsumoto castle. Originally built in 1504, it's the oldest in Japan. Will snapped this nice picture showing the gardens which I'm sure are impressive in spring/summer.


It's surrounded on all sides by a pretty impressive moat and has all your standard castle defenses like little windows to stick your bow&arrow or gun muzzle out of and special trap doors for dropping boulders or boiling oil on your invading enemies as they try to scale the castle walls.



In order to tour the castle we had to take off our shoes. They give you these nice slippers which didn't fit any of our feet and a plastic bag to carry your shoes around in.

The castle was definitely cool. I could envision being a ninja, running around this thing judo-chopping bad-guys, defending my territorah! It also looked like a good place to meditate. You know, if I was into that sort of thing.















You can't see it, but this guy has a vicious looking 'stache.



Seriously, the castle was pretty impressive, as in I could never build something like it, but I was a lot more impressed by the cathedrals and castles of Europe, built around the same time. I'm sure Japanese food was way better though ;)















The next day Will and I went with a co-worker to Tokyo to catch some Hanami action. Hanami is the act of participating in Sakura Matsuri, which is the festival of the cherry blossoms. I'm very fortunate to be here right now during the cherry blossom season. Tourists often plan their entire trip around Hanami as it is the most beautiful time of year in Japan.
Hanami is basically a picnic under the cherry blossoms. The Japanese people come out IN FORCE for this event. We went to Ueno Park in Tokyo and even though it was about to rain, there were still tons of people there all spread out under the cherry trees. Walking down the path in the park was like being in Times Square. Except it smelled better.

That night Will and I rocked Korean BBQ for the first time. Chef Will forgot he wasn't at his backyard BBQ and went nuts, throwing all kinds of food on the grill. It started flaming up, causing the waiter to rush to our table, wide-eyed, and turn the flame down. Gaijin.....




This sort of thing would never fly in the States because some dude would try to see what fire tastes like and then sue the place for not telling him it's hot.
Of course maybe I'm completely ignorant and there are all kinds of restaurants with little hibachi grills built into your table in the US. Seriously, if we had this much trouble I hate to see what Billy-Bob can do.

That bowl of lettuce in the picture is Will's salad. It's a bowl of lettuce.












During the week we have lots of fun too. It's one of the reasons I'm so far behind in writing. One of my favorite places to go is Cha Ran Ka, the music place I've written about before. The acts don't vary much. One of my favorites is the Miyoshi Duo. I love her song selections and she's a great piano player to boot! Here's a pic of them playing my request, which they had never heard before, Naima by Coltrane:

It's usually just the piano and bass player, but they have a rotation of other people that play with them, from guitar, to flute, to Japanese lounger singer.


Also there's no shortage of great places to eat here in Yokosuka. We go out just about every night and there's almost always some crazy story to tell the next day at work. Here's a random sampling of food we've eaten:



The picture on the right is tenpura fish. The whole fish.











On the left is plain old sashimi.








Before:


After:

Japanse people are always trying to get you to eat crazy things. Here's Will eating the eyeball.