Saturday, December 8, 2007

Snow monkeys in a hot spring bath

This was a day we'll never forget. We took a little train up from Nagano for the day to see the famous monkey park in the Nagano mountains. After the train ride you have to catch a ride to a bus-stop near the trailhead, then hike up for about 40 minutes to get to the park. The remoteness of the site is a good thing though, because once there you may walk freely among the little macaques. At times they surround you.

Along a river there was an onsen, or naturally-heated bath, constructed specially for the little monkeys. There's a live monkey-cam if you want to see what the bath looks like right now.

Snow monkeys

These little guys are social and very focused on one another, but they seemed to regard us with quiet resignation and not much curiousity.


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Snow monkey pictures

How many can you find in this picture?


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Snow monkey videos