NAGANO - The 200 year old house

This house was my grandmother's famliy's house.
My grandmother grew up, and my father was born in this house.

History

The family's documented history goes back more than 400 years to the Edo era.

My grandmother's brother's family now lives in this house, protecting the family history and traditions.

This house was built more than 200 years ago on an immense land covering more than 2,500 square meters and served as a home to a wealthy family of salt wholesale merchants during the golden Genroku period of the Edo era.  Until recently the family owned a farmland planting apple trees.

The house is designated as an important historical building by Iizuna Town, and thus the family is not allowed to make any alterations to the exterior appearance of the house.

Entrance of the house (outside).

Entrance of the house (inside).

A path in the house for vehicles to pass through to deliver
 goods to the storage in the premises.

Storage warehouses.

Calligraphy passed down through generations.

Private garden for the main building.

Location

The house is located in the current Iizuna Town, and was strategically built in the central area of the Mure-Juku (Juku=post station) on the Hokkoku Kaido, or the Hokkoku route that connected Echizen (current Fukui prefecture) and Edo (current Tokyo).  This route was developed for travelers going to the buddhist tepmle, Zenko-ji, in Nagano.

Juku, or post stations, were created during the Edo period, located on the Edo Five Routes or one of its sub-routes.  These post stations were places where travelers could rest during their travel on these routes.

I remember when I first visited the house more than 25 years ago, the bathroom was "botton style", as we call it in Japanese...the toilet where it was a hole in the floor with no flushing function.  Now, it is fully reformed with the newest Japanese toilet technology.

This house has seen the small village develop over the course of 200 years, and seen the family grow generation after generation.

It is really overwhelming...in a good way of course, to step into the house and have this sensation of slipping back in time...of 200 years!

Iizuna Town is located approximately 20 km north of Nagano City and is famous for its apples, hot springs, and its mountains open for skiing in the winter.

It is also home to the beautiful St. Cousair Winery.
Click here to visit St. Cousair Winery's official website in English: St. Cousair Winery

NAGANO - Korakukan, an Onsen Inn nearest to the Jigokudani Monkey Park with more than 150 years of history

Korakukan is just a few minutes walk from the Monkey Park, and if you are lucky, you may be able to enjoy a bath together with the monkeys in Korakukan's outdoor bath (Roten-buro).  Just remember not to look the monkeys in the eyes, and stay relaxed! 🙈

General Information

Click here for the Korakukan official website

Click here for the Japan Association of Secluded Hot Springs Inns website (English)

Address: 6818-1 Oaza-Hirao, Yamanouchi-machi, Simotakai-gun, Nagano 381-0401

Tel: 0269-33-4376

4 indoor baths and 2 outdoor baths.

1 of the outdoor baths is mixed, or co-ed...male, female, and monkeys!

Rates

No bathrooms or baths in the individual rooms.  

There are two private baths for those who are not ready to bathe with strangers!

Plan A: 15,594 Yen per person (largest room)

Plan B: 13,218 Yen per person (smaller sized room)

Plan A (Shin-Fuseki room, only for those who are interested in the board game GO): 15,594 Yen 

Korakukan and the Japanese board game GO

GO is this strategic board game with black and white stones.

Korakukan is known as a historical place for the Japanese game GO.
It is considered as the the birthplace of Shin-Fuseki (new strategic placing of pieces) developed in the 1930's by two famous GO players, Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen.

Korakukan is home to Kitani Minoru's wife, Miharu Kitani, and her nephew is currently the owner of Korakukan.

You can find the GO table signed by both Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen at the hotel.
Basically, Korakukan is a very famous place for GO players.

Food at Korakukan

We enjoyed dishes prepared with local Nagano ingredients.

Main dish for dinner was Kamo Nabe, or duck hot pot.
Then, there were lots of mountain vegetables, and grilled fish from the river.

Next to the fish...was...Inago no tsukudani, or locusts cooked in soy sauce and sweet sake (mirin).  

Inago is traditional not only in Nagano, but in Japan's mountain regions, as it has historically been served as an important source of nutritional supplement.

This however, does not mean that we Japanese can just pick it up with our chopsticks and eat it.

As a matter of fact, CNN Travel says, and I also agree, that this is one of "The 5 dishes even Japanese people are freaked to eat"! (click here for the full article)

Finally, we (ok, I didn't, only my husband) enjoyed an after-bath drink of Shochu (Japanese sake)...coming in two flavors: snake and bee!
NOTE: the snake sake, which is similar to the Habushu from Okinawa, is also listed in the CNN Travel article, along with the Inago!

Just for your information: the owner of Korakukan would catch the bees that wandered into the hotel and put them into the Shochu...and this is how the bee-sake is made!

If you are interested in trying out the Shochu drinks, just ask the owner of Korakukan!

For more, visit our YouTube channel "Ichigo Ichie in Japan"

NAGANO - Jigokudani Snow Monkeys in the Spring

We went on a family trip to Nagano during Golden Week.

Our main purpose of this trip was to...

1. visit the famous Jigokudani Monkey Park

2. stay at the Jigokudani Onsen (hot springs)

3. visit relatives living in a 200 year old house in the Iizuna area of Nagano

Our first stop was the Jigokudani Monkey Park.

This place is famous for its hot springs and the adorable monkeys.

Jigokudani monkeys known as "Snow Monkeys" are famous for bathing in the hot springs during the snow season in winter.

So...I guess you could call our trip an off-season visit.

Will the monkeys be bathing in the hot springs?

For more, visit our YouTube channel "Ichigo Ichie in Japan"

General information

Opening hours

Summer season (Apr - Oct) 8:30 - 17:00

Winter season (Nov - Mar)   9:00 - 16:00

Admission fees

Adult: 800 yen

Child: 400 yen

Parking fee (per car)

Park visit: 500 yen

Onsen stay: 600 yen

*The parking lot is closed during the winter season.
Why?
Because the mountain road leading to the park is very narrow and it would be impossible to shovel snow for the cars to pass.

I will leave the other detailed explanation of the Park to the official website.

Our Route from Tokyo

Total distance: 232.8 km

Toll: 5,870 yen

       with ETC: 4,150 yen (ETC holiday discount: -1,720 yen)

10:12 Ken-Ō Expressway (圏央道: Ken-Ō Dō)

Hachioji-Nishi Interchange

⇩ 35.7km

Kan-etsu Expressway (関越自動車道 Kan'etsu Jidōsha-dō)

Tsurugashima Junction

⇩ 50.8km

Jōshin-etsu Expressway (上信越自動車道 Jōshin-etsu Jidōsha-dō)

Fujioka Junction

⇩ 146.3km

14:45 Shinshū-Nakano Interchange

⇩ 16 km

15:50 Jigokudani Monkey Park

We were planning to take the Chuo Expressway (中央自動車道: Chuo Jidousha-dō) but saw that there was heavy traffic due to Golden Week.

So we took our second option...and we managed to avoid some (not all) traffic.

According to the E-NEXCO Drive Plaza, this expressway route should have only taken 2hrs and 41 minutes.

Although we did make several stops on the expressway, it took much longer than expected, due to the Golden week traffic.

After we got off the express way at the Shinshū-Nakano Interchange, it took us more than an hour to travel the 16 km.

This is also because there was heavy traffic on the mountain road (yes, great old Golden Week!), and we also had to stop for a bathroom break for our 3 year old son.

My advice: if you don't like traffic, don't travel during Golden Week!