Days 5, 6 and 7 - Nagano

It was time to leave Tokyo for a while and head into the mountains of central Japan.

I departed by Shinkansen up to Nagano city.

This is an example of ekiben literally train station food. It's significantly better than the bento sold in conbini while not being much more expensive.

On the train I the read the goblin slayer manga and it was every bit as great as I'd hoped it would be.

Stopped for lunch in Nagano train station. 

Nagano is famous for apples. So they sell an apple based sparkling wine. 

Oddly they don't seem to have any sort of pork and apple dish

5 different flavours of apple juice

apple "pie"

Switching to local train I travelled up to a place I think is called yadanaka, that's what the train station is called at least.

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I arrived at the hotel and got changed

Many hotels provide pajamas like these.

Dinner was pretty amazing

Part of which you cook at the table with these cool burner things.

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The hotel had I think 8 onsen inside it. You could use any of them whenever, locking the door behind yourself while inside.

The hotel was a confusing maze to get around. I was on the second floor but not the main second floor because it was in an extension and the floors didn't align...

I had a wander round out side and used one of the public baths as well.

These lock but locals and people staying the hotel have a key.

You strip in a small room then enter the bath room, shower and finally enter the bath 

For obvious reasons I lack photos so here's some cool stuff outside

There's a manga about fox girls working at the hotel, they have the collection in the waiting area

Saturday

Breakfast was amazing

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After breakfast I headed to the town of Obuse.

Which both myself and the auto correct elf think should read obtuse.

In the Yudanaka train station waiting room.

Someone has apparently decided to address this.

Personally I think I'd go with "Keep your things close." which is a complete rewrite and not amazing English but should be comprehensible to those who speak English as a foreign language.

View from the train

Obuse 

Obuse is apparently inhabited by aliens

I went to an art gallery 

Then for some lunch. 

This is a dessert made from chestnuts. It's sold in several places in Obuse and advertised everywhere. It tastes sweet, the stuff that looks like pasta is soft.

Outside of the cafe

The train station sold some local products on the platform. I bought an enormous Apple for 100jpy, ~£0.66

Train ride

Back at the hotel I booked the roof onsen 

Fastest shower of my life before getting in but once your inside the water it's rather pleasant. 

You can adjust your temperature by adjusting how much of you is submerged.

Dinner was even better here

So this might look like a drain but it's actually a foot bath. There were several of them around town.

The hotel had a vending machine room on each floor

The next morning I headed off to see the monkeys before moving on to Nagano city.

The monkeys live at the top of a mountain. The hotel gave us a lift to the highest point you can drive to, then we hiked the last 30 minutes.

After saying goodbye to the snow monkeys I took the train down to Nagano

The dance teacher handed out these boxes after the lesson

It turned out to contain wafers like you'd eat with ice-cream

Cake vending machine in nakano station

These are extremely rare.

Nagano city

The army recruitment center is clearly channeling Starbucks

"Hypothetically, would you be willing to kill strangers in exchange for free coffee?"

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I had a wander round the local book off, discovered there's a spin off goblin slayer manga but reluctantly concluded I don't have the space to buy all of it. 

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This concludes the Nagano arc of the trip. 

Would recommend, English isn't too common here but foreign tourists are so I think it'd be manageable.