Day 2: Snow Monkey Park

The Japanese breakfast was again served by the old lady dressed in kimono sharply at 8am, the time we have requested. Again, the portion of dishes served in the Japanese style breakfast was simply too huge. But we knew we have to eat as the weather was pretty cold.

The street in Shibu Onsen was still quiet in the early morning. Before we set off, we were "armed" with a map and some advice on the directions from the reception staff in Kokuya.

There was a shorter path to Snow Monkey Park (about 4km) which was closed to traffic in the winter. Since this path was still accessible to human beings, we decided to take this path.

Along the path, we saw plenty of tall trees. There was not a single soul except us. We even saw a wild boar at a distance away from us. There was some snow along the path. After walking for a time seemed ages, we finally arrived Snow Monkey Park.

There were plenty of big and small monkeys in this park. A staff was feeding some yellow pellets and the monkeys followed him. Some pellets were thrown into the pond. Some monkeys went into the pond to get their food. The water in the pond was warm. Some monkeys bathed in it. It was quite interesting to see these primates having their hot bath.

Since we already knew the route to this Park, we decided to take the same route back. It was quite a breeze as we were walking downhill.

The train from Yudanaka left at about 1.30pm. We continued our journey all the way to Shin Osaka by Shinano and then Hikari trains.

By the time we checked into Shin Osaka Toyoko Inn Chuo Honkan, it was closed to 7.30pm.

I must say something about this hotel.

This is the first time I checked into this hotel. All thanks to DM who has mentioned to me during my planning of this trip. The hotel room was real small; the bed was small, the bathroom was small,... But it was compact. It has almost everything a non-fuzzy traveller needs. It is a perfect room despite its small size for us

The space in every corner was fully utilized. The tea and coffee making facility is also available. There is even a trouser presser which we do not know how to use.

Just round the corner of this hotel, we found a bento shop. Instead of the cold bento available in most convenient shops or departmental stores, this shop serves warm bento. We ordered 3 sets of different types of bentos, We got piping hot rice that came with 3 cups of miso soup! The whole meal cost 1000 JPY which was about SGD16. I must say that we were already on the very cheapo side!

We brought the food back to the hotel and ate at the dining area with hot and cold water facility.