Japan, Day 12: Jigokudani Monkey Park

Christmas day, the hubby, my mom, my aunt, and I headed to Jigokudani Park, home of the onsen-loving monkeys.  We booked a night in an ryokan not really knowing what to expect, as none of us had seen the monkeys or stayed in this particular area before.  We were definitely in for a treat!  The hike to the park was snowy and leisurely.  Upon getting towards the top of the hills, we were immediately greeted [completely ignored] by monkeys!  As you can imagine, these little fellas are pretty used to humans, so we were able to get close as they were scavenging for food, and take some nice shots.  You can see my husband's photographs HERE.

After seeing the monkeys, we enjoyed some relaxation back at the ryokan with a huge meal, beers, tea, more beer, and time at the onsen.  Here are some of my photos of the monkeys--please click on the pictures to expand them:)

my favorite little guy:)

Japan, Day 12: Iwate prefecture--Rikuzentakata city

I will admit I've been avoiding this blog post in particular.  I didn't want to have to go through the pictures.  It's really hard to imagine the devastation left by the tsunami that hit almost one year ago...until you see the damage for yourself.  I'm thankful my family wasn't effected, but we have family friends who lost relatives and friends.  I was glad to be able to see this for myself, but so sad for all the people who lost their lives:

The tree of hope:

Japan, Day 11: Yamadera

Yamadera was a stop we had decided on while researching sight seeing locations before the trip.  We liked the idea of hiking up to the top of this hillside and seeing the beautiful temples.  It was a little different than we had imagined, especially with the ice covered stairs, but the view at the top was beautiful, and it was a nice day trip after a few days of rest in Tokyo.

Japan, Day 8:Tokyo

After a week of constant travel, we really were quite exhausted.  "Taking it easy" was what we wanted to do...and we did do just that on the 10th day in Japan...but not on the 8th.  We headed to Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo early in the morning with our tour guide, my aunt Hitomi.  It was a pretty crazy place, with a hoard of tourists, restaurateurs, chefs, etc.  It was hard just staying out of the way of the people who were trying to get seafood for their businesses.  It was amazing to see the array of seafood sold at this place.  It's not like anything you would see in Newport, that's for sure!

Tuna at Tsukiji fish market

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Next, we headed to Asakusa to see the Senso-ji temple there.  I had been here several times before, but it was Craig's first time...and I think he enjoyed himself.  For any complaints about crowds we may have had in any of the other sites, this place was definitely one of the busiest places we'd been to thus far.

Kaminarimon, the outer gate of the temple

Great red lantern and the bottom of one of the lanterns

Hachiko statue in Shibuya and another lantern (at Senso-ji)...sorry about mixing pics here.
ps...there's a movie about Hachiko.  I have yet to see it.

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As usual, we stumbled upon a few random shrines...

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Then we finally made our way to the Tokyo Tower.  I should mention that we did get a few glimpses of the Tokyo Sky Tree...People in general seemed to be pretty excited about this building.  We may have to see it next time we're in Japan, when the building's construction is completed.
Anyway, we hung out at the Tokyo Tower for a while, and waiting until sunset to see them turn on the lights on the tower...it was a long day, but we were happy to get so much out of it:)