03-01-2025 Hike/Walks

Slept pretty well, I wasn't cold but had to get up a couple of times to turn the space heater back on. We ate a light breakfast and then headed over to the bus stop to get up to Snow Monkey Park. It was in the high 20s, so I was bundled up pretty well, with tights and carrying dual gloves. Got the bus up to the drop-off point for hiking up to the park, then we started. We had budgeted plenty of time for the hike, which was a good thing. The roads and trails we walked on were icy and slippery, so Ann was walking slowly and carefully. Was a little frustrating for me, I had to hold her hand on the icy parts. But we got up to the park before it opened, so less people. There were a bunch of monkeys in the park, most of them searching the ground for food, which I understand is spread out for them as an incentive to come down and be around humans. In the hot spring pool that was created for them, usually there were a small number of monkeys, 2-5. I took a lot of pics and videos, some of them turned out decent, although this was one time when it would have been nice to have a good camera with real zoom. Walk back down was perhaps a little faster. We took the bus back down and then had a brief break before taking another bus into town and eating lunch at a place that served ramen and other dishes. Was good enough for us. We walked quickly from there to Yudanaka station and caught a couple of trains to get to Obuse station. We walked through a deserted part of town to get to the Hokutai Museum. He was an influential painter from the mid-1800s, but the museum didn't have a lot of his works. Instead, others who were influenced by him had their work displayed. It was an odd little museum, didn't take us long at all to go through it. He painted iconic paintings of waves and Mt Fuji. We stopped at a little craft store afterwards had some apple turnovers, cider, and beer, and talked to the storeowner, who lived a long time ago in the US. She was very chatty, and it was an enjoyable diversion before we had to walk back to the train station. Got there in plenty of time, train back had fewer stops. We got some food at Lawson and then walked into the village to find a place for a snack or drink. We ended up in a place called Yamabouiboui, where we got drinks and talked to the server, who owns the place along with her French husband (the chef). They've been open 5 months, so far so good. We had a nice chat with her about traveling, living internationally, and food. Then we walked to the bus stop and caught the bus back to near our ryokan. Short stop in the room, then we used the private onsen there. Water seemed really hot, but Ann cooled it off and we got used to it. Sat inthere6for a while before heading back to the room, eating a bland (for me) dinner, and relaxing before going to sleep. Was a long day, mainly decent with only the museum being a letdown (but two fine conversations with locals).