I
have a confession: I am a compulsive list maker. Shopping lists, wish
lists, budget lists, travel lists-you name it, I list it.
There’s
just something so exhilarating about being able to methodically cross
off the items of my lists one by one. Success! Success! Success!
The
list of things I want to do/see in Japan (referred to as my J-Town
Bucket List) is no exception. One of the things that I’ve been meaning
to do is go and see the famous “Snow Monkeys”, Japanese macaques who
have taken to sitting in warm onsen (hot springs) during the cold winter
months in Nagano Prefecture.
Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to head out that way since Nagano is a neighbor and I often visit my friend M, who lives there. However, simply because there is so much on my J-Town Bucket List (i.e. be physically present/visit all 47 prefectures), I didn’t have a good excuse to go back to Nagano until my friend Mishka came to visit me.
Together
we schlepped to Nagano, enjoying the fall colors with coffee, booze and
soba noodles as our companions, and met up with M in Nagano City. From
there, we took a train to the Yudanaka Shibu Onsen area, and from there
walked to Jigokudani (Hell Valley) Snow Monkey Park.
There
were monkeys all over! They are fairly tame-or at least used to human
presence- but they are still wild animals so we did not touch them. Most
of the monkeys didn’t seem keen on begging or stealing from us anyway,
which was a nice change from the pushy deer at Nara.
Most of the monkeys seemed perfectly content to just sit and relax in the hot springs! It was interesting observing how their faces almost mirrored the looks humans get stepping into the warm water after a rough day.
I did feel a little sorry for the ones who eventually got out of the water. They looked so cold! Surprisingly, their fur dried very quickly, and I never once saw any of them shivering. Clearly, they are doing just fine.
What a life!
