![]() As we hurried, we pretended not to notice the lack of snow on the ground, and I instead told Dave about how I couldn’t be any more excited. Most people estimate the walk up the mountain to take around half an hour, but we did it in just over 15. When we finally pulled up at the station, two hours later than planned, we were driven straight to the monkeys. We were in a battle against the clock, desperate to make it to Yudanaka before the park closed, while struggling to contact the ryokan owner to let him know we’d be late. It was going to be an exhausting day, and our route would see us battling to make numerous connections.Īnd then, of course, we missed our first one. Our ryokan owner would then pick us from at the station, drive us to Jigokudani Monkey Park, and leave us to hike the 30 minutes up the mountain to the entrance. From there, we would need to switch to a train bound for Tokyo, change to a train heading to Nagano, and then leap on a train to Yudanaka. Waking early, we jumped on our first train of the day, from our accommodation to the main station in Hakone. I’d wanted to go since first learning about their home in 2011, and now that I had finally made it to Japan, was prepared to go all out in order to see them for myself. ![]() I’d manipulated our Japan itinerary to include an illogical visit to the snow monkeys, and convinced myself it would be worth the long-winded adventure to get to them. Here’s what I was expecting it to be like, based on the photos I’d seen online. Macaques had not, until this point, ever been observed in onsens, but it turned out they kind of liked being warm in the winter. For months on end, he’d place apples in a nearby valley beside a hot spring, until eventually, the monkeys learned to stick around and avoid the farmland they’d been tearing apart.Īnd as for the whole bathing in an onsen thing? At some point, the apples in the valley began to fall into a nearby hot spring, and the monkeys started taking a dip into the water to fish them out. When Sogo Hara found out about this, he created Jigokudani Monkey Park to keep the monkeys from harm. These farmers, unsurprisingly disgruntled, went on to petition the government about the situation, and were granted permission to kill the monkeys in order to protect their land. Suddenly, food was in plentiful supply, and the macaques were all about stealing the farmer’s apples. Why such a dramatic name? This area of the country is full of mountains and volcanic activity, which means that in the winter, you can witness huge plumes of steam emanating from the hot springs that pool around this region.Īs the monkeys moved closer to humans, they found themselves within a short distance of several farms. Trees were being cut down to build ski lifts for resorts, and as the monkeys’ habitat began to shrink, they travelled towards Jigokudani, otherwise known as the Valley of Hell. Monkeys have lived in this area of Japan for a long time, but sixty years ago, their home in the forest was threatened. ![]() Jigokudani Monkey Park was founded by Sogo Hara in 1964 in an attempt to keep local macaques from harm. If there’s no snow, the Snow Monkey Park features a handful of unhappy monkeys running around in some mud.
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