Nagano, a friendly place.

Leaving our mountain getaway we headed for Nagano, which was just east of us but due to a big mountain the train had to go back to Matsumoto first then back up. Once here we dropped our bags and headed north for Zenkoji Temple. The main road leading straight to it. The area was set up for the festivals over this period. We entered the inner sanctum of the main temple, where we also entered a passageway underneath that was pitch black. Here we were meant to find the key to enlightenment, everyone found something hanging but we are unsure whether it was an actual or metaphorical key. All in all a very surreal experience.

Walking down from the temple we checked out the various shops which contained many items that we refrained from buying in case they got damaged whilst travelling.

We headed for dinner at a ramen bar where there was no English menu or people that spoke it. Awesome.

Afterwards we hit a bar where we spent the night drinking wine with 3 Japanese people having fun.

 

Our second day in Nagano saw us heading 50 mins out via bus. From here it was a 2km walked into the mountains to find the monkey onsen. Here we were surrounded by monkeys that where running around on on our feet. Even a few fighting and running at us, which made it interesting. Here we met Jack and Simon from the London.

Later that day we all met up again and headed back to the temple for the festival. There were stalls around selling food and drinks, as well as some games.Just inside was a music stage with bands playing. In the main square was a stage with 3 circles around it. People took to the stage and people lining up on the circles. Realizing what was happening we were asked to join in so we did. Following the people on stage and 2 Japanese girls who were kind enough to help us we spent the next 2 hours dancing away. We had so many cameras on us throughout I lost count.

Afterwards, withB our new friends Hitomi and Rina we headed for Karaoke, meeting two more on the way. The eight of us spent the next 2 hours warbling away.

A fun couple of days indeed which flew by way too quickly.