Yesterday...

[mcalex22]

Me and some friends drove to Nagano and visited Jigokudani Yaen Koen aka Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park and Onsen. It snowed a lot, the path to walk uphill to the park was very treacherous (lots of ice and snow) but the view was absolutely gorgeous. I got some people to take photos of me but I didn't like many of them - maybe I'm just not a fan of

Comments

[lavvyan]

That really is a beautiful picture.

[mcalex22]

Thank you! I was blown away by it - being from Sydney where I don't get such views! It was a really scenic mountain view park! We had to hike up there and I just couldn't believe how lovely it looked.

[lavvyan]

It certainly looks like an amazing mixture, wilderness off to one side and civilisation on the other. That bridge looks absolutely snowed in, btw - were you able to cross it?

I felt a lot like you say when I first moved here. My "new" home (three years already; I can't believe how fast they went by!) is a fairly mountainous region as well, and the first few weekends I spent either wandering around or, if it was raining, gazing raptly out of my living room window.

[mcalex22]

Yes, we could cross the bridge - it was walkable; the snow looks a lot more because it's been shoveled to the side to make a small path!

I don't mind the snow actually because powder snow is ok to walk on. It was the ice that was annoying - when we hiked up to the park with the monkeys/macaques, a lot of the trek was covered with ice. It was narrow and quite dangerous if you didn't have any proper shoes. One of the girls in my group actually had a panic attack going down because she couldn't handle the height and was scared of all the snow and ice (she's from Mississippi where it doesn't snow this much).

But I had 2 other Canadians in my group and they were pretty cool... I'm not used to that much snow but I loved it. I'm just savouring all this before I return to Australia permanently. As much as I complain about the snow, it is indeed beautiful!

I will miss the mountains when I go back to Sydney :)

[lavvyan]

I'm so happy you're having such fun adventures! :D