Doomed to rebirth

So I went to Zenkoji today but I failed to find the key to enlightenment. Seeing the snow monkeys is becoming more of a production than I thought it would be but hopefully they will be out bathing and make my day long odyssey worthwhile. I still need to make it out of Nagano today (to either Nagoya or Kyoto, depending on how long I take with the monkeys).

In other news, I had my first terrible hostel experience. Suffice to say that I spent the better part of an hour standing on the street and only the repeated phone calls of a generous stranger to the hostel number resulted in the door being opened. The reason for this ridiculous charade of hospitality? At some point in the 24 hours since my reservation was made, the proprietor forgot it. I was the only person staying there that night, and presumably she decided to take the evening off. Grr.