Japan S2E3: Nagano
Kon’nichiwa and welcome back to our Japan adventure. Today is Shinkansen day again Yesterday we took a day trip to Kamakura for the Hase-dera Temple Today we move our base camp North to Nagano This region is known as the Japanese Alps We left Tokyo two hours ago in late summer weather … and arrived in Nagano in early winter weather. And if the cold wasn’t enough, to add insult to injury, we discovered that by 6:00 PM, there’s no place to eat, everything is closed. We had to walk through the streets scorched by the cold wind, and garded by the Liquid Metal relics of the 1998 Olympics, for about an hour until the restaurants started opening…. In the end we found a warm and cozy Isakaya and with the help of an excellent sashimi 🍣🍣🍣 and some warm sake 🍶🍶 the mood was completely changed. 🤗🤭🤫 After a bus ride of almost an hour, we arrived at Jigokudani Onsen. We are constantly reminded that … Snow Monkey loves … well snow … and monkeys attendance is not guaranteed. We still have to climb through the woods for another hour to the Snow Monkey Park Some incoming travellers have confirmed that there is ONE monkey in the park but she refuses to get in the pool 😡 The pool is set to 35C in Summer and 45C in Winter It is now time to return to Nagano for our next objective. In translation Zenkō-ji (善光寺) means the “Temple of the Benevolent Light” It was built in the 7th century and it remains one of the few still active pilgrimage sites The temple features a hidden Buddha statue (Hibutsu). This Hibutsu is rumored to be the first Buddha statue to ever be brought to Japan. A replica of the statue (Maedachi Honzon) can be shown publicly once every six years, in spring, in a ceremony called Gokaichō. The Kyozo is a repository of printed Buddhist sutras, and the visitors get to rotate the octagonal sūtra holder, in order to get enlightenment.
00:00 Intro
00:08 Map
00:27 Opening Titles
00:48 Nagano Evening
01:37 Jigokudani – Smow Monkey Park
07:22 Zenko-ji
12:14 Encore
#jjaway, #japan, #nagano
AloJapan.com