Snow Monkeys

Nagano has snow monkeys which made it worth the trip:

We went to a 200 year old sake brewery that just started making beers, the owner brought me a stout fresh from the tank.  It was beautiful.  We had free sake and beer tasting.  We stayed in a Ryokan and had a traditional japanese evening and ate the best ramen i have ever had. The owner was super cool and drove us to the monkey park and hooked us up with a private and free onsen.