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.
Unfortunately we’d left our visit a little late in the year and most of the snow had already vanished, however the monkeys were still very much in the mood for a bath or two, and there was a whole bunch of them knocking around, going about their daily monkey business which seemed to include chomping on sticks, cleaning each other, eating, taking a dip and fighting. Sounds like a pretty good life to me.
As I said the one thing that really struck me as we approached the entrance to the park (which is basically just a gate put on one side of the valley for people to pay, the monkeys run around the whole valley pretty much, oblivious to any gates) is how most of the monkeys just don’t pay any attention to the visitors. And when you get to the onsen, which is the main point of attraction and where most visitors gather, this is only accentuated as the monkeys go about their business with absolutely no seeming interest in who is around or how many giant camera lenses are thrown around them. And even though visitors are told not to stare at the monkeys, a sign of enimity in their society, and stand back, there are still plenty that come close to them, photographing and observing which the monkeys seem to essentially not mind (no touching though, as some guy found out when I was there).
The monkeys’ behaviour and the way in which they seem not to care about human visitors made me think about how it gives the whole situation a bit of a surreal element, as if the roles were reserved - the humans are the monkeys and monkeys the humans. I was thinking about this reversal of roles because of most people’s behaviour when we were there - rather than treating this as an exceptional occasion, something special and remarkable (which it is), most people seemed to treat it as nothing more than entertainment, as if it was ‘normal’ to an extent. There were definitely a few visitors who seemed totally oblivious to this idea that what they were seeing and where they were was actually special, a unique place where man and one of its closest relatives can observe each other in a way which most people who aren’t professionals would never get to experience.
Standing around and observing the monkeys live their life, trying to identify their society’s hierarchy and just looking at them being themselves up close in such a way was really fascinating, and time just flies by when you’re doing it. The best part though was going back to the entrance, where there’s a hotel with an outdoor onsen for humans. As I said before the monkeys roam freely in most of the valley, and so while the hotel is outside the boundaries of the park, it doesn’t stop monkeys from walking around and more importantly observing humans in their onsen and sometimes joining in. Knowing this I had to take a chance, and as luck would have it a couple of monkeys came down the valley and joined us when we took a bath, which definitely ranks as one of the best experiences in my life. After all where else are you gonna be able to have a bath with a monkey in a hot spring eh?
As usual there’s a bunch of pics on Flickr
Snow monkeys in Nagano - Flickr set
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