Yudanaka
After another bus and two train journeys, in the evening we arrived in Yudanaka, a hot spring village famed for being home to a troop of Japanese Macaques, or “snow monkeys”, who like to hang out in the hot spring baths alongside the river in their mountain home. We were initially apprehensive that the monkeys may be difficult to find so got very excited when we saw one scurry down the banking on approach to the park where they live. However, we needn't of worried as there were around 50 hanging out around their main spa pool. As the park has been operating for over 40 years now, and the monkeys are enticed to the pool by food, they are really only semi-wild. There are, however, no barriers between you and the monkeys and they are free to come and go as they please. It is a great experience being at such close quarters to them watching them going about their business, which mostly consists of grooming, followed by a spot of bathing the spa and some occasional fighting. Sounds like a pretty good life to me. It was a shame not to see them in the snow, but still the 300 plus photos that Richard and I managed to take in little over an hour attest to how much we enjoyed the experience. Luckily for you we've only selected a handful to post on the blog. They have their own live cam here. And here's a video we made. Sooo Cute.
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