Japan bucket list item #8: see Japanese Macaques, snow monkeys. These little guys are genius. And I don’t mean using tools, acing-mind-games-in-labs kind of genius. But they know how to live. These are the only monkeys to live naturally in Japan. Japan is temperate, cold. But these monkeys relax in hot springs all day. It’s like living your life in a hot tub. Genius? I think so.
So while in Kyoto we left downtown and took a little train to the outskirts. The town was adorable. Then we crossed a river, and climbed a little mountain. Then we paid 600 yen and entered Iwatayama Monkey Park. Oh, commercial Japan. ;)
We walked up the path, seeing glimpses in the rustling tree branches. And then we hit the mother load. The feeding deck. At the top of the mountain, there’s a wide open space full of snow monkeys. And you can just … hang out with them. It was so bizarre to sit with a bunch of monkeys just walking all around you. Oh hey there.
You could also feed the monkeys from inside a lodge. My husband came up with an evil trick and a monkey that fell for it gave us a great laugh.
Pulling away the food like this …
And using this face ...
You get the same face back!
Evil, right? We gave this monkey many a fruit and nut because she was so awesome. She became our best friend, and we had a great time up that monkey mountain.
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