Watching the monkeys skinny dip

If you were living in the Japanese Alps during winter where the north winds carry as much as 70-80 cm of snow in just one night and the temperature drops to minus 10 degrees, wouldn't you choose to escape into the nearest 41 degree warm hot spring? We would, - and so does the Japanese snow monkey we have heard, so together with Henriks parents we went to see for ourselves.

Only little snow showed its glitz to us here and there on the long 5 hours drive from Koriyama through the Japanese alps to Jigokudani Yaen-koen. The monkeys are said only to use the hot spring during the colder time of the year, so we hoped we weren't too late having already seen the cherry trees bloom in Koriyama.

After a stunning drive through mountainous landscape, we arrived at the entrance to the park, paid a fee to a lonely guard and wondered about this place. Only one other car to spot on the parking lot, no other tourists in sight. The sign to the park looked kind of worn out and we weren't really sure what it was telling us. (seems to be a common problem we encounter with Japanese signs :-)). We started to walk a trail in a direction we thought would lead us to the monkeys but instead we ended up at a private house. Or was it an onsen? Returned half way, passing two Japanese women who was about to make the same detour as us, and chose another trail. The place looked sort of closed down, but as we wondered if any monkeys would be there at all, an Italian person showed up on the trail and told us of hordes of monkeys, so we continued on.

Monkeys soon started to show up around us. Young monkeys playing around, older monkeys grooming each other, some ran away when they saw us, most didn't bother. We couldn't help smiling watching the little fellows at so close range, and the smile got even bigger as we approached the hot spring and found the monkeys were still having a blast in the hot spring. Such a rare sight! :

The monkeys are not caved. They choose by them selves to come down from the mountains to visit the hot spring almost every day during winter despite tourists that show up to stare at them.

Even a monkey can get startled by its own beauty: The monkeys traditionally feed on tree buds, flowers, bark and insects which can all be difficult to find during winter, so because of that, - and to prolong observation of the monkeys behavior, barley, soybeans and apples are served by the park employees. The monkeys love it,- but not as much as they love wild grapes and chestnuts, so in autumn the monkeys turn their noses up to the convinience of soy beans and barley to go hunting for delicacies in the forest.
The snow monkeys does not quite look as charming wet:

Miss Wet 2008:
We spent the night in a typical spa town called Yudanaka at a traditional ryokan, with access to around 10 different hot springs, all with different temperature, mineral content and size. To visit the hot springs that was scattered around the village, the ryokan kindly supplied us with Yukata and Geta (clothes and shoes) and a key and a map so we could walk from bath to bath attracting quite some attention from bypassers and shop owners. Some of the onsens were so warm that you could hardly put a foot in them. (Hot springs really heat you up as B experienced ending up fainted on the floor,- but thats another story.)
The picture on the right shows how annoyed the local shopowners are with the monkeys in town... (look for guns).

The trip back through the mountains was as beautiful as on the way up. Emphasize on THROUGH the mountains. I don't remember who won, but we had some serious competition going on in the car: How many tunnels would we pass? More than 30,- but I can't remember the right number.

We would like to go back during winter, as the snow do so well on photographs. Anyone want to join?