12/15/13

     I woke up very early in the morning. Why? A friend of my friend came to Hawaii for about half a month, and we needed to pick her up at the airport. Maybe it is not a big deal for most of people because they have a car. They can just drive on the highway and straight to the airport. Unfortunately, we don't know how to drive. In addition, our friends who have a driver license and a car have to work. Therefore, we could only take the bus to the airport. It was a very long ride, which almost spent 1 hour... On the way to home, the weather got terrible! Heavy rain, shiny lightning, and loud thunder! We didn't bring any umbrellas. We took a chartered a taxi rather than took a bus to home because we didn't want to get wet, so did the baggage. The taxi driver wad nice and dropped us off just in front of my friend's living apartment. However, when we opened the taxi door, we were shocked. The road was full of water. I mean...the whole street was like a big fish tank or a pool. Actually, I love rainy day because it is cool and refreshing. However, Hawaii's rainy days make me crazy! The roads always remain inundated with water due to slow drainage, including today. Pedestrians always get wet when they walking on the street because of the slow drainage, especially when there are vehicles passing them. This is just what I experienced today :( I hope the drainage system can be improved in the future.

12/08/13

     Time have passed so fast and it is almost the end of the semester. All the final projects, papers, presentations, and exams are upon me or quickly approaching. Unfortunately, I am have a bad cold right now. I have coughed for more than a week. Sometimes, I have a sore throat and a bad headache. Sigh..I think it is the time to test my time management because I need to take a good rest to recover soon and finish all the finals before the deadline at the same time. Umm..how's everything going right now? So far so good. I still have two final papers, one presentation, and one final exam. However, I am having a big challenge on the final papers because I have no ideas what I should write. I am not really good at brainstorming. Anyway, just keep going!

Jigokudani Yaenkoen (Snow Monkey Park)

     For this week, let's take a look on how Japanese macaques spend their winter.

     Jigokudani Yaenkoen, nicknamed Jigokudani Monkey Park, is located in the Valley of Yokoyu River sourced from Shigakogen of the Joshinetsu Kogen National Park in Yamanouchi, Shimotakai District, Nagano prefecture, Japan. The name "Jigokudani" means "Hell's Valley" because of the steep cliffs, the steam and bubbles coming off the springs, and the cold and gloomy forest. The heavy snowfalls make this place buried in snow almost one third of the year. Under this severe environment, however, it is a paradise for the Japanese macaques to live in. The Japanese macaque is a monkey species native to northern Japan. It is also known as snow monkey because its body is always covered by snow in winter. They have brown-gray fur, a red face, hands and bottoms, and a short tail. During the cold winter, snow monkeys enjoy bathing in the hot spring winter to stay warm. They play and take a leisurely onsen (hot spring). These snow monkeys attract a big amount of visitors every year. Visitors watch them bathing and playing, however, these snow monkeys basically just ignore them and continue enjoying their hot spring.

This snow monkey really enjoys the hot spring! ^^

Bathing

Playing