Nagoya, Nagano and the Snow Monkeys

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Well we made it safe and sound...Japan is crazy for sure. This place is constantly buzzing and so far it has been a pretty cool experience. We arrived in Tokyo, and feeling jet lagged had to make it to Nagoya (4 hours by train) to go find Ally and Tim, really good friends who live here and teach english. The trip, although tiring, was relatively painless. Getting around here is a hell of a lot easier than anticipated. After finding Ally, we celebrated by consuming many many beers...

The next day was slightly painful, but we set out for a day trip to Nagano to go and see my Snow Monkeys. A group of about 200 Japanese Macaques who live in and around the thermal baths in a little town called Yudanaka. Well, we got to Nagano late, obviously as our feet were not moving all that fast from the previous night's festivities, so we missed the closing of the monkey park. Definitely not up for another 3.5 hours train ride back home we said F-it, we are just gonna stay in Nagano for the night, which turned out to be a great idea. We went and visited one of the most sacred Buddhist temples in all of Japan called Zenko-ji and it was amazing. This was our first real taste of any old Japanese culture for sure. The culture is amazing. You can't help but notice the attention to detail. Every single little nook and cranny seems to be filled with something beautiful. So we recuperated that night, had a good dinner and went and chilled in the hotel room.

We left early to go see the snow monkeys and god dammit they did not disappoint. They are so god dam cute, except when you try to pet one (just ask Teri) and they lunge at you with their mouth open and a look of "Im going to fuckin kill you" in their eyes...it was pretty funny actually. You had to hike in through a cool trail in the Japanese Alps to get to the park, which was also nice. Then once you get there, there are monkeys everywhere. They are not shy at all and would walk under you and between your legs pretty much...we loved them, but you can probably see why in the photos.

After the monkeys we took a walk through Yudanaka (really pretty old school mountain/hot springs town) back to the train, eventualy after a long trip back met up with Ally and Tim and drank again at a gaijin bar.

Today we are all off to Osaka for some more debauchery...will keep you posted.

peace...teri and shane

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Photos

Photo 2
shrine in nagano

Comments

[Rich]

niiiiiiice....
hey, guys......sounds like your having an awesome time.......pictures are real neat, except for that #12 pic - like wtf??? LOL Have fun....watch out for the saki, I hear the REAL stuff is 'holy shit, what happened' powerful.... Later

[Niki]

Hi Guys, glad your having so much fun!!!! F'n cute monkey's???!?!?!?! I didn't see them...those monkey's look like they came from hell!!!! I would be running away from those things that's for sure! Off to downtown today to explore and drink EXPENSIVE beer!! Have fun you guys, love ya's!!!!! Thanks again for letting us use your place CHEERS :)

[Big Daddy Victor]

gaijin
Love the picture of Shane as an anime character. Well done. How are the Japanese people? From what I've heard they're really polite and shy. But then there's the school-girl panties for sale in the vending machines, right? Is that true? NO, I don't want you to bring me back a pair, thanks. So Japan seems like a strange place. Like what's with the reverse nazi symbol? Look forward to hearing and seeing more about it. Cheers/Victor

[peacefulanarchist]

teri+monkey=friggin' hillarious!!!
Hey guys glad your alive must have been pretty hard to tear yourself away from the macaques. SO CUTE !!! peaceandlove bria and da!

[stacie]

OMG, love, love, love the baby snow monkey!!!!

[melmel]

dont eat yellow snow

[Mahoney]

AWESOME - jealous - AWESOME !!!!

[Sherry & Chris]

I don't think you would have got your mom that close to monkeys again, Teri. She certainly can relate to the look monkeys have about "f'ing killing you". Cute in pictures though. Love the Japanese version of Shane! In case you haven't heard - Canada rocks!! We won more gold medals than any country EVER in the Olympics - Go Canada Go - including beating the U.S., in the hockey game!! Have fun and we look forward to more blogs!