It snowed so of course we have to go see the snow monkeys again

The path to the snow monkey path is usually icy and muddy at this time of year. Today the path is icy, muddy and snowy. We did happen to have a dump of snow overnight.
"The path is very slippery Michelle, take care", I said.
I did mention ominous foreshadowing in a previous post didn't I? The last thing we want to have happen is a pregnant woman slip over.
Extra snow does make for a prettier walk, but a very cold walk. More snow gently fell as we walked. Georgia was safely ensconced in her plastic cocoon so was spared the worst of the not too horrible conditions.
On arrival, again, we sat down and had our 7 Eleven sandwiches before going out to the Monkey baths. You never get sick watching the monkeys cavorting, frolicking and... I'll have to look up a thesaurus if I want to use more verbs to describe what the monkeys were doing. But you get the idea. Monkeys are kawaii (cute) and are well worth a diversion if they're not already on your itinerary. I suspect we'll come back one day. Maybe when Michelle's current passenger has arrived? But that is in the future. Today was a good day. Playful monkeys and beautiful snow covered scenery.

Like the adage says, all good things must come to an end. Apparently Chaucer first wrote that. Anyway, for this trip we had to farewell the monkeys. Of course this meant taking the treacherous icy path back to the car park. It isn't as if I'd ever slipped and fallen on that path and watched my video camera bounce into the ravine. Something like that couldn't happen again could it? Not if we are very very careful.

As we arrived at the final stairs to exit the track to the car park I reminded Michelle that it was very icy and to take care.

So what does she do?

Michelle slipped over at the end of the path.

See the sign in the picture below warning of the slippery path? Ironically Michelle slipped over off the bottom steps a metre or so from the sign. Hilarious.
She did manage to land on her back and not break her waters so she is still pregnant. I was hoping not to use that extra pregnancy coverage we'd paid for with the travel insurance if we could help it. Handy tip for pregnant travellers - get travel insurance that covers you for pregnancy issues and premature birth. It is amazing how limited the coverage is for may insurance companies.

After all the excitement it was back to the road. Next stop Matsumoto.

Entrance to the park - sort of. It is about half an hour's walk from here.

Snowy path and pram.

Sangers in the visitors centre.

7-Eleven sangers.

On the way down to the monkeys.

Snow monkey!

It really is amazing how close you can get to the monkeys.

A break from the cold.

I went back out for a little while while Michelle and Georgia got warm in the visitor's centre.

Oh yeah, that's the spot.

The monkey's paw. That's from the Simpson's isn't it?

Breakfast and sayonara to Kokuya

It snowed over night so there was a light dusting of snow over our balcony. This bodes well because we had decided to go see the snow monkeys again. Our next stop will be Matsumoto and it's not more than a couple of hours there from Yudanaka so we reckon we have enough time to see the monkeys again. Having said that we still need to give ourselves some time to get to Matsumoto because the last time we did this drive we drove into Matsumoto in near blizzard conditions and struggled to find the car rental drop off before it closed. That time we got to the car rental place within five minutes of closing but the guys were cool enough to drop us back at our hotel. I'm pretty sure they'd have found our frozen corpses in the Spring thaw if we'd attempted getting to our hotel by ourselves. Sometimes the service in Japan can be extraordinary. We're not dropping the car at Matsumoto this time so we won't be as stressed about getting there at certain time.

But before we go off gallivanting over the countryside we had to have our last dip in the onsen, breakfast and then check out of the ryokan. There's never enough time in the mornings for us sleepyheads to have a long soak in the tub. We have to have breakfast over and done by 9 AM and checked out by 10. With the breakfast spreads as they are you do not want to miss breakfast under any circumstances.

Again, breakfast is special. I actually struggle making a reasonable attempt to try everything. I'm usually just a toast and cereal kind of guy and I really have trouble coping with more than that. But you have to try. Michelle has no problems. I think she loves Japanese breakfast more than just about anything.

We thanked our delightful breakfast, and dinner, servers. Those women are extraordinary. They're there first thing in the morning serving us breakfast and still there last thing in the evenings serving us dinner.

After breakfast we finish packing and load the car which has magically appeared in front of the lobby again. Georgia got to say hello to a little doggy that belongs to one of the staff or the ryokan. After a few photos in front of the Ryokan we wave bye bye to our wonderful hostess and drive about 100 metres up the road to a small shrine and stairway for more photos. At this rate it will take us about 3 hours for the 10 minute drive to the snow monkey park. But Georgia in her parka and little red boots is worth a photo or two at every opportunity.

Private onsen and dinner

After a long hard day watching monkeys in the hot tub it was time for this group of primates to wash off the day's grime in our hot tub. Or rather, we thought we'd give one of the ryokan's other onsens a go. They have a couple of these onsens in the hotel available for all the guests. Guest without private onsens on their balconies I suppose. We do have a private onsen but we still wanted to sample what else was a available. We chose Gessen. It is indoors but it has a couple of big screen doors that can be opened to the outside. We thought it would be better to take the opportunity to have an indoor bath. No cold wind blowing up your... back. Gessen was a beautiful large stone bath. Very hot water which did need some cooling down. When you sit in the water for few minutes you notice that the lower half of your body is bright red and the top half normal skin colour. Michelle was only half way through her pregnancy and we worried the little fella she was carrying would be cooked early if we didn't cool down the water just a little.

Georgia had a ball splashing around in another big bath. She has taken to all the different onsens like a monkey to a rotenburo.

Family fun time in the tub

After the bath there was nothing to do but go to dinner. Don't you just love being holidays? Seriously, I could get used to this lifestyle. Dinner was again in the private dining room downstairs. Another feast. Similar to the night before, multiple courses, yet quite different. There is no danger of you getting the same meal two days in a row. It would be interesting, and very bloody expensive, to stay here a week and see how many days go by before you get the same menu again.

Snow Monkey sake

Steak

 
The futon fairies had been in our room  while we were out stuffing our faces. So the beds were made up and ready for us to crash into. Firstly though, Georgia had to finish watching a weird little show on TV about bananas. Then she went to bed in her porta-a-cot. I don't think I've mentioned the Phil & Ted's  travel cot yet, but even if I have it is worth mentioning again. It is an extremely light, 3kg, portable cot. It is designed for camping but can be used anywhere. At 3 kgs it adds almost nothing to your baggage limit when flying and it folds up very compactly. It is a bit of a bitch to put together, it is like putting up a tent, but once you get the hang of it you can get together in a couple of minutes.
 
After a hard day's monkeying around, and soaking in hot tubs, and stuffing ourselves silly at dinner there's only one thing left to do. Yeah, that's right. Take a bath in our private hot tub on the balcony. It was snowing lightly tonight so there couldn't be a better place to finish our last night at Kokuya than in our onsen.

Jigokudani Monkey Park - snow monkeys with out little monkey

Snow monkeys.
Eventually.
But first we have to trek for weeks along an icy trail. With a pram. Then there are stairs. Up. Lots of up. Maybe we should have made Georgia walk? No that wouldn't have worked. Her little cute red gumboots are cute but she refused to put them on properly so they kept coming off.
"All we have to do sweetheart is push them on properly..."
"No!"
Sigh. So we pushed the pram along the icy path. It takes about half an hour to get to park. The last 50 metres or so is up a steep staircase. The pram, a Peg Perego, was pretty good considering. I doubt it was designed for going bush like this. It was light enough to carry up the stairs fairly easily too. Did I mention that Michelle is pregnant? Is that enough ominous foreshadowing? Pregnant partner, icy trail, what could go wrong? She did very well too considering the load she was carrying. Georgia wanted to climb the stairs herself. Icy and steep. Yes, we were thrilled. I kept having flashbacks to the last time we came here. That time I slipped on the path, came down heavily and my expensive video camera bounced over the edge into the ravine. Hence my paranoia about icy paths and steps. I think I only screamed and swore in frustration once or twice. Eventually we got to the top safely and paid to go in to the park.

After the long walk we thought it would be best for all our sakes to stop and have a bite to eat. Family Mart sandwiches we'd bought earlier it was then. And some green tea flavoured Kit Kats given to me by a couple of young women visiting from Australia.

The last time we came here the whole area had been dusted with snow and it looked quite pretty. Today it has been days since it snowed so the area around the hot spring is pretty much snow free so it looks quite stark. But the monkeys were there soaking in the hot water.

A little monkey came up to Michelle, stopped at her feet and then pooped. What's with monkeys welcoming Michelle this way? Last time we came a little fellow ran up to Michelle, flipped himself over and dry humped her leg. Hilarious.

One of the monkey keepers told us to either hide Georgia's Teddy bear or hold on to it tight because the monkeys are known for taking stuff from the tourists. Some things, like phones and cameras, don't take well to being dunked in the pool. There was no way Georgia was going to let the bear out of her sight though, she insisted on holding it.

A good day with the monkeys. We're considering coming back again tomorrow before we head off for Matsumoto.

Sangers before monkeys

Wants sangers too

Hello little fella, what are you doing?

Oh, poop.

It's not all laying about in hot springs you know

Sometimes it is all about laying about in hot springs though

Monkey jump

See, it says snow monkey livecam

Buddy, you are too close

Oh yeah. That's it.

Little red boots

Tired out.

Back on the trail.

Kokuya Ryokan - Yudanaka-Shibu Onsen

From one luxury ryokan to another luxury ryokan. This time we're staying at Kokuya Ryokan in Yudanaka-Shibu Onsen. This will be the second time we've stayed at Kokuya. When we stayed there back in 2010 we'd been looking for ryokans with the great food and private onsen experience. We'd short listed a couple but the thing that swung it for us in the end was the review by Billy Law on his A Table For Two blog. Billy Law is now famous for having been on Masterchef Australia but back then he was a reasonably popular food blogger. It was his description of the food at Kokuya made us book. Of course now that we were back in Shibu Onsen we'd try and see if lightning could strike twice.

Like our visit 3 years ago we got a room with private onsen on the balcony. The first time we stayed at Kokuya we had room Sagano. It is an average sized room but has a large balcony and one of the larger hot tubs. This time we stayed in Ayame. A larger room but a smaller balcony and a slightly smaller tub than Sagano. Just enough room for the three of us though. There's also a couple of reservable onsens in the ryokan for all guests that we thought we'd try this time as well - just for a bit of hot water variety. The downside of the upside of having a private onsen on your balcony is the shower is outside too. A bit chilly in the middle of Winter when you're rinsing off before and after soaking in the tub. Dead set though, when you're sitting in the tub there could be blizzard and you'd be toasty. There's also a TV behind a glass screen outside with the tub just in case you get bored chillin' in the tub and looking at the stars.
After the check-in ceremony of green tea and snacks under the heated table blanket we dressed in the supplied yukata and made ready for dinner. Oh yeah, it was a feast. Again. Oh the humanity. I don't know how I lose weight travelling because these dinners put the sump in sumptuous, the X in glorious excess and the F in feast. 12 or 13 courses, but who's counting? There's tofu, meat, fish, crab, rice, soups, assorted appetisers and dessert. Dinner and breakfast are taken in private rooms in the dining room downstairs. The first time we stayed it was some of the finest dining we've ever had. It wasn't quite up to the same standard this time but it was on a par with Michelin starred restaurants we've eaten at. Every course, and there were many courses, was delicious. I recommend the local cloudy Snow Monkey sake with your meal too.

No special kid's meal for Georgia this time but she was more than happy sharing ours. If there is raw fish she eat it hand over fist. Bring noodles to the party, and we had soba, she will happily slurp away. You don't always need special kid's meals. With a bit of luck they'll try almost anything before spitting it out with a resounding "YUCK"! Actually it wasn't quite true that there was no kids meal. She did get rice with a packet of savoury powdery flakey stuff that kids love to sprinkle over their rice. Japanese kids at least. I can't recall seeing anything like it in the supermarkets at home. Reason #247 for moving to Japan.




After dinner we had an early night and went to sleep. Ha! As if. Did I mention we had a hot tub onsen rotenburo thingy on the balcony? No, after dinner it was time to nude up and soak in the the tub.

We booked direct with Kokuya. The link to their English language website is here.