Snow Monkeys

We decided to go see the snow monkeys today! We walked the couple of steps over to the train station (hehe, since it's connected to our hotel) and bought a day pass to snow monkey park which included our bus tickets there and back. We had some time before the next bus so we went to check out a bit of Nagano.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but Nagano is where the Winter Olympics were held in 1998. So while we were randomly walking around we stumbled upon the Omotesando Nagano Olympics Memorial Park where they was a statue and an Olympic podium.  That was pretty interesting to see and also marvel at all of the great athletes and the thousands of fans that had traveled here.

We continued along the main street with no real destination in mind until we saw a sign that indicated the Zenkoji Temple was only 80 meters away. We decided we should check that out, now walking with a purpose towards a destination. There were lots of shops and restuarants leading up to the shrine. We found a place that had flavored honey samples which was delicious, so I bought a small sample pack of raspberry flavored honey. So good! They had samples of it in several ways: straight, mixed in cold water, and melted in hot water. All ways were good and they also had several other ideas of how to serve it: in tea, on pancakes, and on ice cream. Yum!

We got to the temple which was very pretty. This temple is famous in Japan as it was founded in the 7th century and houses the first Buddha statue ever to be brought into Japan when Buddhism was first introduced to the country in the 6th century. The original statue is hidden while a copy of it is put on display for visitors to see every 6 years for a few weeks. We were not there for that time, and the next opportunity is in 2021 in case you're wondering. We did get to go inside the temple but unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures inside. It was very ornate with lots of gold. You could pay to get into the inner chamber but we didn't do that. Apparently if you do you can go into a basement and wander around an underground passage in total darkness in search of the "key to salvation". It's said to be attached to the wall in the corridor and that anyone who touches it is granted salvation. Here's a picture of the outside of the temple:

We walked back to the train station and made it just in time for our bus. It was almost an hour bus ride and then a 2 km walk to see the monkeys. Before we hit the hiking trail we stopped for some food at a small cafe; Jack and I split some ramen and sushi while Matt had some tempura shrimp add fried sweet potato. All of it was really good. 

The Monkey Park is in Jigokudani valley; "Jigokudani" means "Hell's Valley" which was named because of the boiling water and steam that bubbles up from the crevices of the frozen ground. It's also surrounded by steep cliffs and dense forests. It sits at an elevation of 850 meters and has heavy snowfalls and snow covering the ground for 4 months of the year. The snow is starting to melt now but even today we could see several feet of snow in several areas. Most of our 2 km walk was through the forest on a super muddy trail due to the melting snow.

We were still over a kilometer away from the park and walking along mostly with our heads down trying to avoid stepping in the bigger mud puddles when Jack stops and draws our attention. It's a wild monkey in a tree just above us! We were so amazed. It looked like it was gnawing on the bark of a branch, but we later read that they eat the new leaves and berries from the trees. As we watched he climbed further up and grabbed another branch. He ate.  That one clean then climbed down and walked right past us on the path! That's when we noticed another one a little further away from the path also in a tree and appearing to eat branches. We marveled at them for awhile before continuing on. On our way we saw one other monkey that I took a video of, as he walked pretty close to us as well.

Then we made it to the actual park. First- an explanation: the "snow monkeys" are actually Japanese macaques. This particular area is famous for having a large population of them that forage in the forest during the warmer months and go into the valley to soak in the warm waters of the onsen when it's cold. They get their name "snow monkey" because they live in areas where snow covers the ground for months of the year (duh) and no other non-human primate lives in a colder climate. they have brown-gray fur, red faces, and short tails.

Before we even actually entered the "park" (I put it in quotes because it's not enclosed; the monkeys are free to come and go as they please) we could see dozens hanging around. There were signs to not pull out any food and we quickly found out why. A woman opened some sort of package from her pocket and one of the monkeys heard and immediately went to her and put his hand in her pocket! She shooed him away after awhile but he was pretty persistent. 

In the park we saw lots more of all sizes. There were lots of babies playing and moms looking like they had had enough. We watched one family of four (a mom and presumably three kids of various ages) for quite awhile and were very entertained by the bickering of the youngest two. They kept picking on each other just like human kids! The older one would go up to the smaller one and just put his hand on him and the younger one would swat him away and this would go on and on. I could just hear him screeching "stop touching me!". This would go on for awhile until mom finally intervened and then they would separate for a few minutes and then start all over again. Here's a picture of them:

We made it up to the onsen where the monkeys typically bathe in the colder weather, but today was reasonably warm so no bathing today. They were all lounging in the sun, sleeping and grooming each other (aka, eating bugs off each other). We saw a couple of fights break out but they would be resolved quickly. We saw one monkey leap to a rock in the middle of the onsen and then fall in when he tried to leap out but didn't jump far enough. He jumped out pretty quickly and ran off like he was embarrassed since everyone was laughing.

It was super interesting just watching them and marveling at how similar they are to us (except for the eating bugs off each other thing, I'm glad we don't do that!). Most of it was in a fun way but we also saw a baby monkey who had somehow lost one of his front hands so he hobbled around a little and walked on his back two feet more often than the others. The other baby monkeys would pick on him quite a bit, which was also sadly very similar to humans. We really just wanted to take that baby monkey home with us and take care of him.

It was great how many we saw and how close we could get to them. There were a few times when they would walk by me and I thought they might accidentally brush against my leg! I have a zillion pictures in the album linked on the right but here's a few:

Can you count how many monkeys are in this picture?!

We made the hike back down and caught the last bus back to Nagano. It was pretty to see the beautiful mountains and orchards along the way. Once we were back we found a soba noodle place since Nagano is famous for it. So a is thin noodles made of buckwheat. I didn't care much for what I ordered, but perhaps it's because I'm just getting tired of noodles (is that possible?! Naw...). 

That was our day! Oh, another interesting thing about our hotel. They have these sample skincare things which are awesome! It's super unique which is why I want to tell you about it. It's all made of olive oil. It's a four step thing and I used it last night and my skin looked and felt awesome today. The first part is the weirdest: it's a cleansing oil. You put it on your dry face and it feels like you're just rubbing oil on your face. Then you wash it off and your face does feel very clean. It's supposed to remove makeup and dirt from your pores. Then they have a second cleansing wash that you use, which feels more like a typical cleanser. Then you put a toner on to prepare your skin to accept moisturizer. The moisturizer feels like another oil and you just put it on and leave it. It's weird because your face continues to feel oily for awhile, but then you wake up and it feels great! I'm taking all the samples they leave and I might actually buy this stuff. It's made by a company called DHC Care.