Nagano

Nagano was big for us. It was our first actual city since we left Tokyo and it marked the successful completion of the first major leg of our trip. It let us know that we could put some miles down in a reasonable amount of time without killing ourselves. It was fun riding into the city. We felt like cowboys in the old west. We cleaned ourselves up and went to check out the nightlife.

For whatever reason, we found ourselves in a pirate bar. The bar was shaped like a pirate ship and there was a pirate behind the bar serving drinks. Spitting image of Captain Jack Sparrow. . . if he was Japanese. Really weird.

Rather than playing the usual bar music, this bar went with the score from Pirates of the Caribbean. It just played over and over. Must have been set on repeat. I'm still undecided as to weather I think this would be an annoying place to work or the best job ever. I'm fairly certain my nephew Andrew would think the latter. Hes three. The kid sleeps with a sword and a leather tri-pointed hat. My sister is hoping its just a phase but I'm not so sure. Once a pirate always a pirate in my mind.

The Next day we got on our bicycles without any of our gear weighing us down and went to check out the city. I felt awkward and unsteady at first, like I had forgotten how to ride a bike without an additional 5o lbs piled on it. We headed for the Zenkoji Temple, one of the oldest in Japan and the first to allow women. We spent a few hours wandering around the gardens there, Gettin' our calm on. It was quite nice.

Friday morning we planned to leave Nagano for Joetsu a town on the coast north of Nagano but we decided to take a side trip east to check out the Jigokudani Monkey Park where the famous Japanese snow macaques live.

The ride out there was a lot longer than we had expected but it was gorgeous. It followed a beautiful green river valley up through a ski resort town. As we got close, the road turned into crazy steep switchbacks and the forest grew dense and dark. Finally the road leveled off and I started riding fast. I came tearing around a bend to find a huge macaque walking across the road on all fours. It was a big monkey. We're not talking about some little spider monkey. I thought this guy was a yetti. The squeal of my brakes startled him but then he just stared me down for a moment before resuming his walk at the exact same pace. It was like he was making a point of letting me know that I wasn't worth hustling for. Pompous monkey.

The park itself was great. There were a lot of monkeys in there all engaged in different activities. Snacking on stuff, grooming each other, little ones playing, other ones trying to make more monkeys, and some just relaxing with a soak in the hot springs. They didn't seem to mind our presence and it was great just to hang out and watch them for a while.

From there we were headed to Joetsu when my tire blew out. Not the tube but the sidewall of the actual tire- not fixable on the road. We decided to grab a train back into Nagano to hit up a bike shop.

That minor hiccup aside, it was well worth the trip out to Jigokudani and Nagano itself was a great place. So after taking in some city comforts for a couple days, an internet cafe that serves free milkshakes for instance, we hit the road and headed for the ocean.