Yudanaka Snow Monkeys

I finally made it to the Yudanaka, the snow monkey park.  Yay!!

I joined one of the tours the lodge runs twice weekly, as it seems near impossible to get there on public transport.

First stop was the awesome sushi train in Iiyama.  Love it.  Delicious, as always.  And it’s so fun ordering by shinkansen. 

When we got to Yudanaka there was a 1.6km walk in, which was almost worth the bus ride in itsef.  It was so pretty, with all these picturesque snow capped trees.  We saw a geyser along the way, and slightly more awkwardly a naked man using the outdoor onsen at a hotel we passed.

The monkeys were great!  Technically they’re wild animals, but they’re so used to humans that they just completely ignore you.  And so many!  They all come to the area with the onsen in the winter to warm up… and of course they’re also lured with barley twice daily for the benefit of the tourists.  There were hundreds of them!  Everywhere.  Kind of scarily human-like.  Or maybe we’re scarily monkey-like?  Either way, it was really interesting.  And they’re so cute.

Photo from the wonderful Julie Jobson