Monkeys and Monkeying Around

For my first weekend back in Japan it was pretty eventful. Originally I planned a quiet weekend to finally unpack my bags and get settled but I guess my apt can stay a wreck for another week!

This is me: freezing

Friday:

After work, Melissa came down to Sanjo and we hit up Pizza Hut and went back to Niitsu for some foreign food grocery shopping, LoneStar Mexican food and movie night! Since Melissa’s New Years Resolution was to “give up the sauce,” we didn’t go into the city in order to avoid any temptations that might ruin her chances of being sober before 2 weeks had even passed! Its not that she drinks because she likes being drunk, but rather she drinks in order to be able to tolerate people in general! She cracks me up… lets see how strong she is next weekend for musical rehearsal. I bet she’ll crack!

Saturday:

Back to Sanjo. Some friends invited me to a Manja dinner Okonomiyaki style. It’s really good, even though you pay to cook your own food! It was Jenelle’s first time eating it and so we let her cook most of it! Lucky her huh?

it looks like puke --but its actually really good

I didnt do grab the waitresses ass, I swear!I dont think youre supposed to do it like that

Me and Reiko @ Dinner

Afterwards, it was onto Karaoke! I vowed to NEVER participate in Karaoke but since one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to step out of my comfort zone and expand my horizons, I gave it a go. The other resolutions were to save money, eat better, study for the LSATs, travel as much as possible and stop wasting time dating losers. So far, I’ve been 100% successful…2 weeks down, 50 more to go!

Enlglish Phil
dancing on the furniture--yup got pretty crazy!

this picture is so random...and IIIIIII will always love you!!

sing it WhitneyEvery party needs a party pooper and that is YOU!Sunday

We drove to Nagano which is about 3 hours away to see wild Snow Monkeys.

this is a pic of my lunch on a roadstop on the way to Nagano...it blew me away that my nori was decorated with the name of the town on it! It's definitely the small things that get me really excited!

Entrance to the monkey onsen

The actual hike to the monkey onsen was beautiful and it took us probably twice the amount of time to get there because we kept stopping for pictures:

I have to get way over there?So cool...As we were walking on the edge of this cliff...you could look down and see the river belowlooking back on our path

The monkeys actually have their own hot spring (onsen) and you can hang out with them. There is an onsen just along the path where men can take a bath WITH the monkeys. Only men can do it though since it is out in the open and no one wants to see a naked man. If women did it, there would be people driving in from all over to see the free peep show instead of looking at the animals. I couldn’t imagine being any cleaner after I got out of a bath with a monkey especially because we saw 2 monkeys having sex in the water, but whatever floats your boat I guess!

I'm going to warn you now that I took about 100 pictures of the monkeys and only put a select few on here..but there are plenty more where this came from. I was overloaded with Kawaii-ness that I just couldnt help myself:

Melissa shrieking...get away get away

After a ½ hour hike you come upon a whole HERD/PACK…COMMUNITY of monkeys! (What is a pack of monkeys called? Tribe? Pod? Herd? Does anyone know?) moving right along…It is amazing how close you can actually get. There is no cage separating you from them, so it’s actually possible for them to touch you, bite you, hump your leg or throw poop at you! When it’s really cold they all chill in the hot onsen water in order to bathe and warm up. Since we went on a day that was warmer than usual (3 degrees Celcius –if that’s what you consider warm) most of the monkeys were out frolicking about instead of sitting in the water.

At last...our search is over: The Great Monkey Onsenlife is soooo tough:
I couldnt help it: just swinging in the wind
I wonder if he sat down on ice if his balls would stick to the ground and he couldnt move...that would be really funny...and dont ask me how that even entered my mind.. Im sick I tell ya!

A baby

Look how close they come up to you...here is a close up of the one Im with above:The GodFathers of the Monkey Tribe throughout the years:

The walk back was amazing too:

I thought to myself: wow this hill looks really cool and steep, I should take a picture..I bet its really slippery... Then proceeded to forget my initial thoughts and walk up the damn thing: Inevitably falling and busting my ass! --but falling gracefully nonetheless.

Isn't it cute?Really cool waterfall thingy

Later that night there was a festival in my town for the New Year. It is called the Toro Festival or the Voltive Lantern Festival in English. It went from 7 p.m into the wee hours of the morning. There are huge Voltive Lanterns (looked like candles to me) that are lit in the shrine and people can enter and give offerings and pray.

We waited in line for ½ hour to get in only to be hurried out after 30 seconds. LAME… but on the bright side, I got to ring the bell in the shrine. Don’t know what it means but everyone was fighting and pushing to ring it and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and was the CHOSEN ONE! Better believe I was the best damn bell ringer there ever was! Lol…I rang that bell proudly like I knew what I was doing…except for I didn’t know how many times to ring it so I hope I didn’t upset the Gods, since that is definitely how I DON’T want to start off a new year.
us waiting in line... with no umbrella
the lanterns right in front of the bell and the entrance to the temple

This is what all the hoorah was about???

People take all their good luck charms (omamori) from the previous year along with their Christmas decorations to burn in a big fire in the middle of the festival. People also buy dried squid on a stick and roast it over the fire.

"Squid on a stick!! Come get your squid on a stick!"

No one I was with knew what the squid on stick signified, but it looked weird and kind of disturbing that they were cooking over the fire that was burning TRASH!

It was FREEZING and snowing and hailing! Highlights of the night: popoyaki, cottoncandy, candy apples, and roasted chestnuts. Yes, I bought one of each and hit all the food stands because I am a big fat ass! But…the best part of the night: LEAVING! It was too cold and I couldn’t enjoy it while I was there, but looking back, I’m glad that I went.