Monkeys…in hot tubs!
Japanese people are not the only ones who love to take onsen. High in the mountains outside of Nagano, macque snow monkeys also love the hot healing waters. We took a day trip from Kamesei Ryokan in Chikuma City to visit Jigokudani Monkey Park to see this unusual behavior for ourselves.
We were warned over and over not too look the monkeys in the eyes, because they see eye contact as a form of aggression. Of course, the first thing Sean and I did when we unexpectedly encountered a monkey near the entrance was look it in the eye. It started coming towards us. I shrieked. Sean ran, leaving me in a standoff with the monkey. Glad to see I have a protector. I inched my way around the monkey, and we notified the guy at the entrance desk that the monkey seemed agitated. He came out in a hurry, but upon seeing a monkey just hanging out in the corner, he shooed it away and told us not to worry. Meanwhile, all of the Japanese visitors inside the building watched all of this play out through the glass and were getting a hearty chuckle over the silly scared Americans.
On the path down to the onsen, we muttered don’t look him in the eye, don’t look him in the eye every time we passed a monkey. Once we arrived to the onsen, we had to get over our fears of the monkeys quick, because they surrounded us on all sides, doing what monkeys do. Viewing these monkeys, I have no doubts about people’s scientific relationship to primates. Our friend Tony calls our cat a humanoid due to his tendency to act super fabulous and people-like. There is no other way to describe these monkeys except for little humanoids. They lounged, ate, swam, soaked, and cuddled just like humans.
We were a little disappointed, because the monkeys seemed to enjoy being in the onsen most when the park ranger enticed them in by throwing food. Perhaps it was because the weather wasn’t cold; I’ve heard the best time to view the monkeys is in the snowy winter months. Nevertheless, the monkeys were still fun to watch. And if I want to see what they are up to this winter, all I need to do is to check out the monkey’s webcam; live monkey action 24/7.
