So today was the day to see if we could find the elusive snow monkeys. Way up in the hills is a wild group of snow monkeys, and there is a park to which you can go to see them. However, it’s not like a zoo or wildlife park that we would know, but just a place where the monkeys sometimes come to congregate.
Up in the hills there are a lot of natural hot springs that locals have built hot baths around (onsens).The snow monkeys got to like these onsens during the cold months when they would come for a dip with their family group (a troup of snow monkeys) to warm up. The local authorities got sick of having to shoo the monkeys out, and so they decided to build a pool for the snow monkeys to gather and lounge around in. However, they only do that if they feel like it, and with the weather being reasonably warm, it’s a very hit and miss affair.
But we thought we’d take a chance, and caught the morning bus up to the onsen. Alas, no snow monkeys have been seen this week. However, we had a lovely walk on the paths through the hills, which were laid over the natural aqueducts, that were built to carry the water from the hot springs down to irrigate the rice paddies lower down.
Eventually we caught the lunchtime bus back to Nagano.
So let me tell you about something more interesting. Most people will know that Japanese is actually written in three different scripts. There is one traditional picture-based script (kanji), and then one phonetic-based script that can be used as an alternative (hiragana). There is a third script that has been invented to write all those pesky foreign words that have crept into the language over time like computer and Wi-Fi (katakana). So learning Japanese is already hard enough.
You will know that when we start teaching somebody a language one of the first things you teach is how to count to 10. Easy in most languages. However, what most people don’t realize is that in Japanese there is not one set of words for numbers. In fact, there are hundreds of sets of counting words depending on the shape, the texture, or the nature of the item you are counting. For example, there is one set of numbers for counting people, another set for counting round objects, another set for counting thin things, and so it goes.
It makes ordering anything very complicated because you have to know the right numbers for what it is you are ordering. So asking for one room in a hotel uses a different number to asking for one cup of coffee, which is different again to asking for one ticket. Very confusing really. Why, you ask? Remember the first rule of Japan. “There is no why, it just is.”
What We Didn’t See
Snow Monkey trail
Irrigation channel
Snow Monkey trail
Source of the hot springs
Hotel Courtland