The Story of the Snow Monkeys

April 17, 2025 Thursday   
Nagano to Niigata to Nagaoka

After another happy breakfast, we were out the door of the hotel by 8:30 AM. All our suitcases were left outside our rooms to be picked up by "Tiger" who drove the van holding all our baggage.

We stopped at a shrine for a dog named Hayataro who lived 700 years ago. Erika told us that girls were being sacrificed to a baboon monster. Hayataro was able to rescue more girls from being killed by destroying the monster. The shrine was erected to honor this brave canine. 

Our next stop was Minowa Ichinomiya to see plum or peach blossoms.

Unfortunately, it was a little too early in the season so the trees were not in full bloom.

There was a lot of forsythia. However, we had a huge hedge of it next to our house when we lived in Illinois so they weren't that amazing for us. Still, you could enjoy the happy color.

Art climbed up the tower there and could see lots of cherry blossoms in the distance.

We then traveled on to Niigata to see a fireworks presentation at the Nagaoka Hanabi (Fireworks) Museum. We were told that this started after the WWII bombing.

During the long ride after the fireworks museum, Erika told us about the famous snow monkeys who like to soak in the onsen waters during the winter. 

Nagano is known for their delicious sweet apples. The apple growers were really upset by the monkeys who kept coming to eat the apples from their orchards so the farmers started throwing apples as far away as they could to keep them away from their trees. Eventually some of the fruit landed in the hot springs. The monkeys went after them and discovered how much they liked the warm waters. More monkeys began going into the hot springs. 

Eventually Life Magazine photographed and wrote an article about them which made them world famous.

We arrived in Nagaoka. Our hotel for the night would be the Hotel New Otani Nagaoka. Matt took us to a shopping center where we happily went to another 100 yen ($.70) store. That was fun. We grabbed a quick dinner there which we had in our hotel room.

Tomorrow, we'd be taking a 75 minute jet foil ride to Sado Island.

The Battle of Sekigahara

 April 16, 2025 Wednesday
Sekigahara Battlefield Memorial Museum

We started our morning with a fun breakfast with tour members we were getting to know.

There was a fun variety of food we don't normally get to eat.

Hmmm... donuts? 

And always... there was a lot of green salad which we were enjoying.

Before we left the hotel, Art did some exploring and walked to the Nagahama Castle which was built by Toyotomi, Hideyoshi. He was a samurai and daimyo (feudal lord). 

 

Phyllis and I had our photo taken together.

And there's the photo of us in 2018. 

It was so much fun being together again on a tour.

Our first stop was Sekigahara. There was a huge museum telling the history of this terrible battle. We even had photos taken with their computer.

Wikipedia:

The Battle of Sekigahara (Sekigahara no Tatakai) was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period.

This battle was fought by the forces of Tokugawa, Ieyasu against a coalition loyal to the Toyotomi clan, led by Ishida Mitsunari on behalf of the young child Toyotomi, Hideyori, from which several commanders defected before or during the battle, leading to a Tokugawa victory. The Battle of Sekigahara was the largest battle of Japanese feudal history and is often regarded as the most important.

The western army led by Ishida, Mistunari had 81,890 soldiers. 8,000 to 32,000 warriors were killed.

The Eastern army led by Tokugawa, Ieyasu had 88,888 soldiers at the time of battle. They lost  between 4,000  to 10,000 warriors.

The horrific battle lasted 6 hours. 

The result of this battle was the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan for 2 and a half centuries until 1868.

I'm noticing the guys were the ones who carefully checked out all the weapons.

Mom told us many times of the Battle of Sekigahara when we were growing up, but I guess my brother and I were studying the Civil War more than the history of Japan. However, as we wandered through the museum and saw clearly the reality of it, the battle became more real.

At these windows, important spots during the battle were pointed out. I could almost imagine the 6 hours of horror that transpired in this small area. 

And yet, 2 1/2 centuries of peace followed.

We then headed toward Komagane Heights, stopping along the way to see this weeping cherry tree. When I texted the photo on the left to my daughter, she sent this photo to me from their house.

OK, I was impressed. I do remember what those glorious 2-3 weeks of spring in Illinois was like. 😂

Revisiting EXPO 1970 and Lake Biwa

 April 15, 2025 Tuesday

Art and I both got up at 5:00 and had breakfast at the hotel buffet with my cousin and Nancy. 

9:00 AM  We left the hotel for the EXPO 1970 Commemorative Park. 

Art and I had both been to the 1970 Osaka EXPO. 

Art was in the Air Force at that time and I was there with friends on the University of Hawaii (Arts and Architecture) tour.

A very friendly couple from Taiwan took our photo for us. It's always great fun to meet people from other countries on the trips that we take.

This tulip garden was close by.

As I recall, my friends and I had a great time 1970. We were high school and college classmates.

I was still a student with a cheap camera so my photos are not great at all.

You can see the Tower of the Sun in the background on the right.

The US pavilion was very interesting and we enjoyed seeing the moon capsule and the rock they brought back.

Art went in spring of 1970. I was there in July and we didn't know each other.

We would meet the following year and therefore felt we needed to experience the EXPO again, but together this time.

One very interesting, gorgeous sight we saw in Japan was this flowering peach tree. 

At least, I think it was a peach tree. We asked Erica and she asked a vendor close by who told us what it was.

Art just looked on Google Lens and discovered that it is indeed a Stellata Peach. 

We were then in the Shiga prefecture for our lunch. Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan and is located in the Shiga prefecture. Our bus passed alongside it as we traveled through the area.

Got this from Wikipedia:

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They include 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one regional prefecture and one metropolis.

We had lunch there of Omi beef which we got to cook ourselves. Yes, it was very good. 

This is our Tohoku tour escort, Micah wearing a paper kabuto (ancient Japanese helmet). He is part of a well known Hawaiian entertainment family. It turned out that yes, he knew our nephew, Shawn who is also a musician/singer.

We traveled on to our next hotel and had dinner there.

This hotel had an onsen but none of the women I hung out with wanted to go and I'm too shy to go on my own. 🙈 You need more courage than I have to take off my clothes with people I don't know and go into the hot springs.

Art, on the other hand had no qualms about it and totally enjoyed it. 😄

Tokyo to Kobe to Awaji

 April 13, 2025 Sunday 
Travel Day from Tokyo to Kobe

It was now Sunday and our big train travel day going from Tokyo to Kobe where we would be meeting our Tohoku tour group.

We went down to our Toyoko Inn breakfast area and got our usual musubi (rice balls) miso soup and coffee. We were all sharing tables with other people and the woman next to us noticed Art and I were speaking in English. 

I didn't get her permission to post her photo so I have to blank her out. She was very pretty and said her name was Mao. She'd learned English in Toronto and wanted to practice with us. We spent a very happy half hour or more talking about all our experiences before she had to leave to catch her train.

Before leaving the breakfast area, we gave small packages of macadamia nut candies to the three ladies who served the breakfasts every morning. We really appreciated their cheerful greetings each day. They were so happy to get the small acknowledgement of their work that it made us happy too.

8:30 AM  We then tidied our room and headed for the metro to go to Tokyo station where we bought tickets for the Shinkansen (bullet train) to take us to Shin-Osaka and then to Kobe. It took longer because we got the train from Shin-Osaka to Kobe that made a lot of stops.

2:00 PM  We saw that our suitcases sent with Yamato Transport from Narita Airport had arrived safely at the hotel where we met my cousin Arnold and his partner, Nancy.

We had dinner at the hotel buffet later that evening.

Someone came up to me at dinner and said, "Hello Kay." 😃 I was definitely surprised. It was Phyllis! We'd been on another tour together in 2018! 

Unlike the brick wall view we had at our Toyoko Inn room in Tokyo, this hotel had a night view of the train station where we'd arrived and Kobe's city lights.

April 14, 2025 Monday

Since I've had very bad vertigo a couple of times, I asked the Tohoku Tour group for a seat closer to the front of the bus. 

We were introduced to our tour guide, "Erika", bus driver "Jackie" and translator "Matt".

Erika told us that a lot of Japanese people are wearing masks because of allergies to cedar pollen that they call yellow sand.

Our first stop was the Awaji Flower Garden to see beautiful canola flowers. Here we are with Arnold and Nancy.

We tried their Wagyu hamburgers and gurudog for lunch and they were very good. I've no idea what gurudog meant, but it was like a regular hot dog. The tour company gave us each 2,000 yen ($14.00) for lunch to spend as we like. 

We passed over a bridge that had the Awaji Vortex which is apparently quite famous.

I imagine boats would avoid going close to it.

Wikipedia:

Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai (puppeteers), tayu (chanters), and shamisen musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as taiko drums will be used. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing is called jōruri and the Japanese word for puppet (or dolls, generally) is ningyō. It is used in many plays.

Our next stop was the Joruri Puppet Theatre to see the famous Bunraku puppets.

You can see that the puppets were very large. Puppeteers in black moved them along the stage.

And here I am with "Jackie" and "Erika," our friendly, fun driver and tour guide.

This was the only downer to a wonderful day. "Matt" had taken us to the Sakura restaurant near our hotel to experience Kobe beef. We were each given 3,000 yen ($20.00) for dinner. "Matt" had carefully explained to the waitress what our meals would be for the four of us.

Arnold and Nancy's meals arrived but ours didn't. When I finally went up to ask what happened, she said she thought we were all sharing the two meals so she had Art and me order again. However, they were now out of their premium Kobe Chateaubriand beef. Instead, we could only choose the sirloin version we didn't want. It was mediocre to say the least since it cost 22,880 yen for both of us which equals about $158.00! 😮

OK... so that was the only downer for the trip. Unfortunately, it was the first day.

teamLab Borderless TOKYO, Azabudai Hills

 April 12, 2025 Saturday
Team Lab Digital Art Museum

Breakfast: Nigiri (rice ball), miso soup, apple juice

9:00 AM We left for Team Lab digital museum on the Kasuga Metro line which was right across the street from our Toyoko Inn.

We'd been to a couple of other teamLab digital museums and were looking forward to seeing this new one at Azabudai Hills. 

Art had bought tickets online and the QR codes were sent to us just the day before.

It really was a lot of fun.

We bought the ice cream and tea to see the digital effects on it. 

The digital branches, leaves and flowers would grow on the surface of your tea and ice cream. It was mesmerizing to watch.

Everything was light, colors and movement.

We were there for three hours!

We were told that we might not see cherry blossoms since they'd started blooming a couple of weeks before we'd arrived.

However, there it was! Absolutely beautiful.

And yup. We just picked up some sushi bentos for dinner and went to bed. We were tired and tomorrow would be a long train travel day from Tokyo to Kobe.

Exploring DisneySea

 April 11, 2025 Friday
DisneySea 

We got up at 6:45 AM and had our vegetable soup/rice ball and coffee breakfast.

We punched in a passcode and put in our carry-on and two back-packs in the lockers at the hotel foyer since they were moving us to another room. (Those are not our suitcases.)

Good gosh! The crowds going in to DisneySea were incredible. They also had a security checkpoint before entering. This was our first time at DisneySea. 

I've had one friend tell me they didn't love DisneySea and another friend tell me it was fun. Oh what the heck! Our granddaughter had once said that she was interested in a Duffy and Friends LinaBell stuffed hanging-on thing for her backpack. We only have one granddaughter, so of course, we were going to look for it.

OK....

DisneySea was interesting.

Everything is done digitally. You have to make reservations online to a popular attraction.

The fun thing is the variety of different kinds of popcorn that were available.

There were soy sauce, milk chocolate, curry, salt, black pepper, roast beef, etc.

I don't know what else.

We couldn't resist the tiramisu ice cream sandwich. 

And then there was this GIANT crow. (It was as big as the crows we used to have in Chicago before the West Nile disease decimated the flocks.)

Our daughter, Tiffany had told us that McDuck's Department Store would have all the Duffy and Friends backpack hanging things.

When we tried to go in to the store, we learned that you had to have a reservation to go in. The next opening was going to be at 7:30 PM!!! 😲

Seriously?

However, when we told a girl at the Galleria Disney store, she said we should look online at their store because the wait wouldn't be as long.

Sure enough! 

We went in a half hour later and there was the LinaBell fox that KC wanted! It cost about $13.00. I just saw it online and it was going for $38.00 in the US. Seriously?!?

Yes we got it for her. 

And no, my grandsons didn't want anything there.

The funny part in all this is that on the way out of the park, we passed by another store that wasn't all that crowded. You could just walk in! And they had the same Duffy and Friends display!!! 🙄

We went to the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, Sinbad's Storybook Adventures (sort of a Disneyland Small World ride), Tower of Terror, etc. 

We took the train back to the hotel, walked to the Family Mart to get a bento dinner, put laundry in the wash, and went to sleep.

I was pretty darn tired.

We were looking forward to giving the LinaBell treasures to KC. We'd also bought a few more dolls to give to our nieces and nephew.

It was a good day.

Leaving for Japan

Forgive me for all the details I'll be writing on my following posts. I record minutiae because I just can't remember our trips unless I record them to jog my memory.

April 8th, 2025 Tuesday
Honolulu to Tokyo

Our van was in the shop because the starter thing was not working AND the air conditioning was dead. We have a wonderful auto repair shop master mechanic who said he would keep the van while we're gone and work on it. 

We worried that our rather large box of omiyage (gifts to relatives), 2 suitcases, a carry-on and two backpacks would not fit in our Prius. 

But they did. 

Thank goodness!

My brother drove us to the airport in the morning after we sent mom off to her Day Care on the Handi-Van.

And then it was time to board our ANA flight to Tokyo's Narita Airport.

I always get a sort of weird nervousness when I look through the window and see we are leaving the island.

Art just looks at it as the start of another adventure.

It was fun to see Pokemon characters used to show passenger safety information.

A friend of ours mentioned how much her family enjoyed seeing The Wild Robot so I decided to watch it and LOVED it.

Also watched Moana 2 which was so so. Then I watched Wicked again and enjoyed it.

There was quite a lot of turbulence at the end of the flight and it was the worst landing ever! 

April 9th, 2025 Wednesday

We landed at 2:43 PM (Tokyo Time) after an 8 hour flight.

The immigration line to enter the country seemed to stretch forever.

We even ended up talking to a couple of guys from the Big Island and another couple from North Carolina who had retired and were traveling the world together.

We found the Takkyubin package delivery service (Yamato Transport) at the airport and sent off boxes to my aunt in Sendai, uncle and cousin in Tokyo. Incredibly, they would get the packages we sent the following morning. The cost of this service is incredibly reasonable.

We also sent our suitcases to the distant Kobe hotel where we would be meeting our tour group in 4 days.

It was 7:30 PM by the time we got to our Toyoko Inn hotel. It's known to be a businessman's hotel with VERY little amenities.

The rooms are extremely small, but the rates are very reasonable.

We were so tired by then that we just went across the street to a convenience store and picked up some bento dinners.

It was fun to see the different religious books that were on display in our room. Well... at least I know two of them are religious. Not sure of the others.

April 10, 2025 Thursday
Hokusai Digital Exhibit

Got up at 7:30 AM. The melatonin I took the night before helped. Otherwise, I'd get up at 2:00 AM. 

As I said, a businessman's hotel is no-frills. Breakfast was miso soup, rice balls, and a beverage (tea, coffee or juice). 

Art loves Japanese woodblock prints and there was a Hokusai digital exhibit of his prints being shown at the Tokyu Plaza. We've been to a number of digital art exhibits. This one was OK.

Next on the agenda was shopping. Our granddaughter had a variety of cosmetics she said she was interested in when we asked her to give us a list. Trouble was trying to find these items in the huge Don Quijote store in Shibuya. It's over twice the cost if you bought them in the U.S.

Mari noticed I was looking rather lost and helped us find everything we needed. And since the items together cost over 5,000 yen, it was also tax free.

The rule is:  Purchases at the same store on the same day must total at least 5,000 yen. That's about $35.00.

After making those purchases, we stopped at Ohana Donburi (Flower bowls) and bought some unagi donburi (grilled eel over rice bowls). My bowl is on the left. Art must have been hungry and bought the seafood donburi.

We were told that we would be changing rooms the following day. 

DisneySea would be our next destination.

Dealing With All That Travel BAD Luck

I wrote in May about what happened prior to our trip to Japan in April and then just prior to our trip to Chicago to see our granddaughter graduate from high school.

Art lost one of his hearing aids at the airport after landing on our return trip from Japan. And then before our trip to Chicago, I went to the optometrist and ended up with a swollen eye. Then the lights kept flickering in the house. Then we discovered my computer died. It just wouldn't turn on. And then Art's computer died. Just died. And then, on the way home from our tai chi gathering, we stopped at Subway to pick up lunch and our van would not start up again until I threatened it that we would need to get a new van.

So OK.

My red eyes: It turned out my eyes were just bruised and soon was back to normal the following day.

The flickering lights: turned out to be a brown out. (I never knew there was a term for that.) Hawaiian Electric Company found a wiring had corroded under the sidewalk which caused the brown out and fixed it. 

AI Explanation: 

"A brownout is a reduction in the voltage of an electrical power supply, often caused by high demand or a temporary issue with the power grid. It's characterized by a drop in voltage, potentially causing lights to dim, appliances to flicker, and electronic devices to malfunction. Unlike a blackout, which is a complete loss of power, a brownout represents a partial power reduction."

Art's lost hearing aids: He bought a new pair of hearing aids from Costco.

The van that refused to start: We took it to our wonderful auto mechanic in Mililani (Kammie's Auto Service) and he fixed both our air conditioning and the bad starter. Our van is happy again now that I've stopped threatening it. It's 25 years old, so I guess it can be a little cranky.

And our computer: 

My awesome brother came and took out the memories from our towers and labeled them carefully. We then brought them with us to Illinois and handed them all over to our Super Genius Computer Tech (son-in-law) Ed who took several days to transfer all our information from our old towers and configured EVERYTHING to work with the updated Windows 11 in the new computers. He made sure everything would work as they should. 

I was a little worried since I was suddenly going from that big tower to this teeny tiny computer that's supposed to handle everything and hold all my gazillions of photos... and in a new operating system no less.

But it did.

It worked! Hurrah! Hurrah!!!

And then my son asked why we did not have a UPS.

UPS? What the heck is UPS? 😳

I asked my techie son-in-law and Ed said yes, we should get a UPS and be sure to get one with AVR. AVR?  😲

OK. Here is what AI says:

A UPS for computers, or Uninterruptible Power Supply, is a device that provides backup power to your computer and other electronic devices in case of a power outage or voltage fluctuation. It acts as a bridge, ensuring your equipment continues to run or can be shut down safely during a power interruption. 

An AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) for computers is a device that regulates voltage fluctuations, protecting electronic devices from damage caused by voltage spikes, drops, or surges. It ensures a stable power supply by maintaining a constant voltage output, even when the input voltage varies.

OK, so there it is. The UPS with AVR is taking the place of my old, bigger tower and everything of super importance is plugged in carefully. Annnd fingers crossed 🤞everything will continue to work properly should something else happen. My son-in-law also has me on some cloud saving thing too. 

Whatever that is. 😉😱

And now…. If everything works as hoped, I’ve scheduled posts to go up on Monday to record our April and May travels. 

And also….to add to our BUSY but happy schedules, our son and family are coming to stay with us on Monday for a month before their move to another country. 😅