Snow Monkeys

We visited Korakukan onsen because it is is located inside the Jiokokudani nature reserve, which is populated by a large troop of wild Japanese macaque monkeys or 'snow monkeys'.

Video:  monkeys in the snow

Jiokokudani is famous as the only place in the world where monkeys get into the hot-springs to warm-up (as you can read at the official website).  It is very popular with american tourists.   All day long a steady stream tramp along the forest path,  many with shell-shocked "this is much further / colder than I expected" expressions.

This is the monkey's hot-spring bath, surrounded by tourists.

Video:  Snow monkeys in the hot-spring bath.   Notice the pairs of monkeys grooming each other.

They say that if you carefully observe their behavior for long enough, you will have a profound sense of how little difference there is between you and the monkeys.  

Watching this monkey scratch his bum, Daddy had to agree.

While we were taking photos of the hot-spring, the monkeys suddenly got-out and raced to pick-up food that was being scattered in the snow by the staff of the nature reserve.   So I realized that the monkeys are not exactly 'wild' but rather 'salaried' or perhaps 'tenured'.

Thinking about it further,  I suspect the reason this is the only place in the world where monkeys get into the hot-spring is because the monkeys pee and poop in the water.  The hot-spring would soon become a health-hazard unless it was regularly cleaned out - probably by the same staff who distribute the food.

So perhaps Jiokokudani is a beautiful example of natural symbiosis:  tourists visit because the monkeys sit in the hot-spring.  The monkeys can sit in the hot-spring because it is cleaned by the nature-reserve staff.  And the nature-reserve staff clean the bath because the tourists visit.

Lookalike (10)

The Snow Monkeys and Hannah's family must surely be related...

Snow Monkeys                       

Hannah's Family

Jigokokudani Onsen

On Christmas day we flew to Japan for our year-end holiday.

Hannah had been so inspired by 'Frozen' that she asked to have a winter holiday in the snow and the chance to make a snowman.   So after an overnight stop in Tokyo we took the shinkansen to Nagano and then a bus to Jiokokudani Onsen on the way to the Shigakogen ski area.

The onsen is in a nature reserve 2km from the road along a forest path.

It was snowy and so cold that Hannah couldn't even sing "Let it Go".

Korakukan onsen at Jiokokudani (hell's gully).   It is a rustic 'minshuku' next to a hot-spring with friendly staff.    Rika and I stayed there 16 years ago (!) when we were first dating.

This time we booked for 2 nights and got a very comfortable room with a nice view up the valley.

Another view of the onsen the 2nd day.

The buildings had a good covering of snow and an impressive collection of icicles, one more than 2m long!    We thawed-out with a good soak in a private family bath before dinner. 

As is usual for Japanese onsens hotels, the evening meal was a feast, with fish, mountain vegetables, wild boar stew.  And plenty of hot sake.

At breakfast the next morning, we could see monkeys just out the window from our table.

On the second night Rika, Hannah and I went out to the rotenburo (outside bath) around 9pm to find it occupied by monkeys.    It was bitterly cold and snowing steadily.

So we slipped in and sat next to them for 40 min.  I counted 14 monkeys in the bath, mainly pairs of mothers and children.  The larger monkeys seemed to be sitting outside on the warm rocks huddled together in groups.   The closest were about 1.2m from us, and every so often a baby would swim toward Hannah and then swim back to its mum.  

Normally monkeys get threatened and upset if you stare at at them too directly.  But the bath was dark and lit by a single light from the hotel.   Since we were strongly back-lit, we could observe the moneys without them being able to see more than our silhouettes.   It was all very peaceful and relaxing except for one moment when a big male walked around the bath,  and the others started chattering excitedly among themselves - perhaps saying things like 'shall we eat the humans?'.   That was unnerving and we got-out shortly afterwards.

The monkeys were still in the bath when I visited at 6:30 am the next morning. 

Video: monkeys in the rotenburo (outside bath) in the morning.

Rotenburo with monkeys in the morning.  We had been sitting in the right foreground part of the bath.  

This monkey had been huddled on rocks warmed by the hot-spring.  He hissed at me after I took his photo, because Id looked into his eyes (a threatening act in monkey-society).

You can see how dirty it gets after just one night of monkeys pooping.   The hotel manager said he had do a lot of work to clean the outside baths every morning.

The weather cleared on the 2nd and 3rd day.  Hannah was able to build her snowman on our way back to the bus-stop.

On the bus back to Nagano we had a beautiful view of the Japan Alps.