So apart from dressing up and eating weird stuff, what else brought us to this far flung part of Japan? Well, thankyou for asking….the main reason we were all here at this time of the year, was to visit the famous Snow Monkeys. These are the ones you see pictures of sitting in the onsen hot baths with snow all over their heads! Although it was very cold (and we had our thermals on), we were too early for the snow at this lower level. We weren’t really sure whether we’d see any monkeys and definitely doubtful about seeing them in the natural hot springs.
The hotel is only a short distance away from the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park but they kindly put on a courtesy bus to take us up there. We got up early so that we could get there before the crowds arrived. Once dropped off we had to walk a pleasant 1.5km through pine forests until we entered the actual Monkey bit and the famous pools. In here there are rules about no food being taken in and that you must stay 1 metre away from the monkeys and of course, no stroking which everybody seemed to obey.
As you can see from the photos – we were not disappointed. There were monkey’s everywhere and we spent a fabulous couple of hours watching these cuddly creatures get up-to all sorts. They were swimming in the pools, grooming each other, playing and jumping, scrabbling about in the river, climbing the steep slopes, having piggy backs, drinking, eating and every now and then kicking off with a show of aggression. This was always aimed at each other and never at us humans, who they pretty much ignored.
It felt like a great privilege to see them so close and in their kind of natural habitat. Splendid.
