Life On The Move

Jigokudani’s Snow Monkeys

With winter wrapping up in Japan, I was finally able to check out the Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano Prefecture.  Jigokudani, or Hell/Death Valley, is the home to many Japanese Macaques year round.  These macaques are drawn to this particular area for the natural hot springs, that are much relief from the average -10C cold.

After a 2 km approach on ice and snow, you arrive to a small hut that serves warm food and drinks.  Right after the hut the valley opens up and a small village appears.  This is where you will most likely first encounter the monkeys.

It is amazing how close you can get to these beautiful animals.  At one point, one of the macaques reached out and touched my lens hood.  The monkeys are not aggressive at all in this environment.  To say that they are used to being close to people is a huge understatement.  Though, when you first arrive, walking right next to them on the trail is a bit unnerving.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 12:31 am. It is filed under japan, Photography, travel, Winter and tagged with adventure, buddhist, family, granite, japan, japanese, jigokudani, monkey, mount, nature, north, park, photography, portrait, shrine, snow, travel, valley, yama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.