One of the reasons I came to Japan was monkeys. Which may sound strange, but the fact is Japan is home to the world’s northermost monkeys, the famed Japanese macaque, first given fame by a cover on Time magazine of all places. Having seen the monkeys on TV a fair few times, I knew that if I was coming here for any length of time a trip to see the monkeys was a definite.
The snow monkeys live primarily in Honshu, though a friend of mine mentioned seeing them in Hokkaido as well even though various things I read seem to indicate that’s not the case (anyone with a clarification on that?). The most famous area to see them, or more accurately visit them, is near Nagano in a place called Jigokudani Koen, which roughly translates as Hell’s Valley apparently, due to the area’s harsh environment, regular coat of snow and hot spring geysers. What’s great about the monkeys in Nagano is that you really are visiting them, in the truest sense of the word. This is no real park, no fencing, no containment. It’s where they live, roaming pretty much free and doing what they please while humans hang around. Considering the state of some of the monkey parks I’ve seen elsewhere in the country, it’s an incredible experience to be able to see them in their natural habitat like that. What’s more, as they’ve become used to seeing humans hang around they’ve become pretty much oblivious to the visitors, which only makes the whole thing even more surreal at times.
The other thing the Japanese macaques are famous for, especially in Jigokudani, is their appropriation of one of the valley’s natural hot springs for their own benefit. Seeing as they live high up in the mountains, with freezing cold temperatures in the winter, you can easily see how a hot spring would suddenly become an enticing idea. And it’s around this hot spring that you primarily visit them. The picture of a monkey with its head poking out of the steaming water and snow on its head is a classic, and something of a signature pose for the monkeys.
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