Meg and Marvin's Visit - Part II; Christmas

This week we went up to Nagano to see snow monkeys and the Matsumoto Castle, had an interesting trip downtown to the Imperial Palace, and celebrated CHRISTMAS!!! I think Nagano was the highlight of Meg and Marvin's trip (at least for me). It was a lot of fun. Here are a lot of pictures, again!

Family Home Evening Treat: Ice cream from Chateraise, the ice cream shop right outside the gate

On our way to see the snow monkeys, we saw these signs for monkey crossings. =)

This was a trip full of tunnels. The longest one we went through was almost 5km (close to 3 miles).

Annabelle in her snow suit

It was a 20 minute hike from the parking lot to the hot springs to see the monkeys.

Here they are, soakin' it up with their soul mates.

Megan in front of the nursing baby monkey

Just hanging out, staying warm

It was a little chilly.

We saw this sign on the way back.

Megan in front of this really cool shrine by the parking lot

That night we drove to Matsumoto and stayed at a Japanese style hotel. Before we went to bed we headed out to find some food. We stopped at a restaurant that had a variety of Japanese food. 

I had some kind of Japanese salad that had lettuce tomato, rice, egg and fried pork. Megan had tonkatsu (pork cutlet).

Mike won the award for most interesting dish. He had udon noodles with lot of floating stuff with a raw egg that cooks into the whole dish. It even had a burner with a flame underneath to keep it boiling the whole time he was eating.

Annabelle had some noodles and rice.

Here is this cool ryokan (Japanese inn), called Ryokan Seifuso, we stayed at. We slept on futons (basically a mattress) laid straight on traditional straw mats. It was very comfy.

This table had a foot warmer underneath. You could sit and put your feet under to keep them warm, its called a winter table.

These were kimonos for bathing. There was a shared bath and toilet so you could wear this around before and after your bath.

Me in mine

Annabelle in just the sweater part of the kimono

They had a tea set so you could have your tea while you warmed your feet. We are pretending to have tea.

We headed to Matsumoto Castle (also called Crow Castle because the black walls and sloped roofs reminded people of crows). It was built around 1594. There were about 23 different lords that had lived there.

There were little windows and openings in the walls from which the Samurais would fire their guns and bows and the castle was surrounded, historically, by motes and keeps.  Almost every aspect of the castle was designed for defense.  It was pretty interesting to see this castle made mostly from wood and mud. Here is a view out one of the windows.

Now there is a huge town built around the castle. This is the view from the highest tower.

A view from the front

We ate a a nearby restaurant. Marvin definitely won the trooper award that day. Someone told him he had to try soba noodles. Soba noodles can be served hot or cold, and he went ahead and tried the cold ones. He said he has had things that tasted worse, but he couldn't think of any.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way home. I walked into the women's bathroom and saw this. I had to walk back out just to make sure I walked into the right bathroom. Maybe it's for little boys when they have to go with their mothers to the restroom. =)

Thursday, we went up to Mt. Mitake which is only about 45 minutes from base. We took this cable car up the first part of the mountain. It was crazy steep! It was like this the entire way up.

Here's the other car coming down.

I was totally freaked out the whole time. I just kept thinking that the cable could break at any moment. I just thought it might be a bit of a scary ride down. I mean, look at that incline!

Eedie couldn't move in that outfit, but it sure kept her warm.

This was one of the first shrines that lead to the big shrine at the top of Mt. Mitake.

Annabelle reading the map and telling Dad which way to go =)

One of the bigger, more elaborate shrines

The shrine in the background, up the steps is apparently 2,000 years old!

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped for some lunch. This was just an appetizer. Mmm... beans with ginger and some mystery green stuff. We forgot to take pictures of our meals, but Mike, Meg and Marvin all had ramen, but I had deer curry! It was very spicy but good. Eedie loved it!

We got this ball that expands when you throw it in the air for Annabelle. She and Meg were throwing it while waiting for the train to go back down the mountain.

Mike and Marvin had a bit of a hard time fitting into the tiny seats.

Friday, we went into Tokyo again for the Emperor's Birthday. Mike was called in to see a patient and we ended up getting a late start. A little too late of a start apparently. By the time we got there they were starting to shut things down. We did get into this first little area that usually isn't open to the public. Here is Mike and Annabelle with one of the guards. It reminded me a little of Buckingham Palace.

Here, you could write a message for the Emperor. Mike wrote, "Wish you the best." I wrote, "Happy Birthday!"

Inside the grounds

It was kind of a botched day considering we didn't get to see the Emperor or the inside of the palace. Actually we still aren't sure which building was the palace.

Leaving the palace grounds

On the way back on the train, Annabelle was totally entertaining some of the Japanese women.

That night, we went to a local mall for dinner. They have a food court so we figured everyone could get whatever they wanted. Mike ordered this Japanese Italian dish that he had a crack a raw egg into. It was so hot it cooked the egg.

As for the rest of us, Meg had ramen, I had some kind of pork goulash covered with BBQ sauce and mayonnaise, and Marvin opted for KFC. =)

We went over to the arcade area where Annabelle wanted to play the An-Pan-Man game (Anpanman is super popular character and is basically Sweat Bean Paste Man) . You just crank the wheel and get popcorn at the end.

Mike liked that your prize for this game was curry!

We finally got Annabelle to sit in Santa's lap. =)

We had a great little spread for Christmas Eve dinner.

Annabelle had her first real cut (that she could see). She got one on her lip a couple weeks ago, but this one on her finger, she saw the blood oozing. =)

Meg and Annabelle decorated cookies for Santa.

We had a Christmas story reenactment.

All of us dressed up in our towels =)

Writing a letter to Santa before going to bed

Christmas morning: helping Eedie open her present

Eedie's favorite gift was Annabelle's Elmo Potty Time DVD.

Meg opening her gift: Japanese tea cups

Grandpa opening his calendar

I found these at a 100 yen store. It was definitely was of Annabelle's favorite gifts. And the one Mike is wearing looks just like the mask in Nacho Libre (except it is blue instead of red). 100 yen was well worth the laugh I got at that!

We had ebleskivers for breakfast. It's a Jones' family tradition that we are definitely keeping! I LOVE pancakes. These are basically little pancake balls.

And for dinner we had the famous Jones' family noodle meal. We will work on perfecting the noodle recipe, but it was still a great meal!

The last two weeks were awesome. We all had a lot of fun visiting all the Japanese sites. It did make me a little homesick for the states when Meg and Marvin left tonight. But no time for homesickness... we have potty training coming up the next couple weeks! Hopefully Elmo knows what he's doing. =) 

We look forward to many more family and friends coming to visit. Til next time...