After a quick night in Saitama, I made my way up to Nagano, from which I was able to go to Jigokudani. This place is known for its hot springs and it’s “hellish” landscape. What it’s really known for, though, is its monkeys, which chill warm up in the hot springs. That’s right. Monkeys. Monkeys From Hell… or at the very least, Hell’s Valley.

As always, I don’t want to ruin anything by telling you too much here (since I’ll be making videos on this stuff starting next month), so I’m going to focus more on what I did / where I went, rather than all the nitty gritty details (sorry!). Hopefully seeing this will make you look forward to the real post on Jigokudani… probably happening in January, after the Cat Island episode.

After a train ride from Nagano, I took a bus to a place that was kind of sort of close to Jigokudani. It was probably only a one hour walk, but I spent a lot of time taking video and photos, so it took quite a bit longer. The trail was easy, and the weather was good, so it wasn’t all that hard getting there. Before you get to the actual monkey part, though, you run into a little village, which is basically some small houses and places to do onsen, if you want. I didn’t have time, unfortunately, but they looked pretty cool… er… hot, from what I could tell. I’d definitely recommend going early so you have some time to dip into the hot springs.

After you get here, it’s not too much further until you get to the actual monkeys. I found some monkeys here (two of them), but it was nothing compared to the amount of monkeys that were in the actual park. The cool part is that they were all pretty friendly, too (though I did get swiped at once). There were all kinds of monkeys… big and small, young and old, angry and happy, etc. They were running around doing the kinds of things that monkeys do.

Taking video and pictures of the monkeys was really easy. Although there are warnings in various places about how monkeys will tear your face off if they want to, for the most part, they’d just ignore you and you could get really close. They’d walk past me, I’d walk past them, and you can easily get within 1 or 2 feet of a monkey. Still, if you go, definitely be careful. Monkeys are monkeys, and somewhere in the back of their head they want to tear your face off, still.

The Jigokudani Livecam

There’s also this livecam that you can watch, no matter where you are, if you want to see the monkeys. I tweeted the webcam address while I was there, and a bunch of you were awesome enough to take screenshots for me. Thanks so much to all of you who helped out! There were a lot of repeats, because the webcam only refreshes every so often, but here’s one of my favorites (if you took this one, please tell me so I can cite you, I couldn’t find your tweet just now!!).

After taking a ton of monkey pictures and videos, it was time to go. Nobody was there anymore for good reason. They realized it would take a while to walk back to the bus (or they knew when the bus would come, unlike some people, aka me) and left. They also probably realized that it would get super dark if they didn’t head out already. I did not realize this, which is why I walked home in the dark.

Gaining The Power Of Longevity

I’ve always figured that if you eat an animal that lives a long time, you’ll gain its power. That’s why I went out with a friend and ate Koi (Carp) sashimi. I can feel my lifespan getting longer already.

Apparently, if you’re looking to eat Koi, the Nagano area is where you ought to do it. After eating some koi and soba, it was time for a quick sleep before heading off to the West, where I went island hopping. I think you’ll like the next couple places. Islands are always interesting.

]]> http://www.tofugu.com/2010/12/14/day-5-jigokudani/feed/ 46 http://www.tofugu.com/2010/01/13/japanese-snow-monkeys-warm-your-heart-with-hot-springs/ http://www.tofugu.com/2010/01/13/japanese-snow-monkeys-warm-your-heart-with-hot-springs/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:53:22 +0000 http://www.tofugu.com/?p=2354

One of the things I most want to see someday are the snow monkeys living in Japan. If you haven’t heard of the Japanese Macaque, you’re in for a great surprise. These monkeys are… shall we say… very “human” in a couple of ways. That, and they’re totally weird.

The “Snow Monkeys” of Japan live in the mountains of Honshu (that’s the main island), and can survive in very cold temperatures of 5 degrees fahrenheit (-15 degrees celsius). Luckily, they fairly recently discovered that they can spend time in natural hot springs to keep nice and warm.

The really interesting thing about their “chillin’ out in hot springs” lifestyle is that it didn’t happen until fairly recently. There are several things they’ve done that show how smart they are, and even pass these behaviors on to the next generation.

• It was only in 1963 that the Japanese Snow Monkeys started going into the hot springs. A young female monkey went into one of the hot springs to get some soybeans that were thrown in there, liked how it felt, and soon other monkeys joined in. The funny part is that only the younger generations of monkeys did this at first, and the old (“darn those youngin’s”) resisted as long as they could. Now you’ll see all the monkey’s hanging out in the hot springs.
• Another thing they’ve learned is how to roll snowballs. Of course, the next step will be to learn how to throw them at the perverted tourists trying to take naked pictures of bathing monkeys.
• In another area of Japan (Kagoshima), one Japanese monkey started washing potatoes. She figured out that she could get the dirt off by dipping it in the water (rather than brushing it off with her hands), and this caught on with the rest of the troop as well. Even better, they figured out that by washing their potatoes in the ocean water, it was tastier from the sea salt.
• The same potato washing monkey also discovered how to was wheat. She’d make a ball of wheat and sand and throw it into the water. The wheat would float to the top and the sand would sink to the bottom, giving her sandless wheat to eat. (source)

If you want to see the Snow Monkeys in action, check out the livecam – if you catch it at the right time (i.e. right when this post was posted) you can see a ton of monkeys hanging out talking to some tourists.

Visiting The Snow Monkeys In Japan

If you did decide to visit the snow monkeys in Japan, just know that there seems to be a ton of other things to do in the area as well (especially if you love hot baths and certain winter sports). To get to the snow monkeys, you’ll want to go up to Jigokudani (Hell’s Valley), in Nagano. Other neat things in the area include several great onsens (Japanese bath house) and ski / snowboarding resorts.

Someday I’ll definitely be heading up here. I don’t know what it is about monkeys, but they’re just so fascinating. Even the obese, fed-too-much-by-tourists monkeys in Osaka seem pretty neat. Were they being fed KFC?

Anyways, if you’re as smart as a monkey, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

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