A visit to the Japanese snow monkeys

Everyone loves monkeys. Actually no, thats not strictly true. While many people coo at the sight of seeing our distant cousins pulling funny faces, most of us consider them a pest when they get up to their usual mischief and try to separate us from our snacks and loose camera gear.

The macaques that come to bathe in the hot springs at Jigokudani (known to one and all as the Japanese snow monkeys) are uncharacteristically well-behaved. Its almost as if their Japanese environment has rubbed off on them. We spent an hour by the hot pool observing these curious creatures interact and there wasnt a single incidence of theft. In fact on several occasions the younger monkeys leapt within inches of their human visitors, generally acting as if we werent there as they brushed our legs before scuttling up the hillside.

Leaving Sam to snap the pictures that Ive shared here, I was free to observe as youngsters squabbled noisily to the visible disapproval of their elders, parents protected their babies from the cold and children played in the snow without a care; all in all the typical kind of behaviour youd expect when watching any of our relatives go about their everyday life.

Snow monkeys are big business for this mountain valley near the Olympic city of Nagano. On our train from Nagano to the end of the line at Yudanaka Onsen (the train was called the Snow Monkey Express) most passengers were Japanese tourists, heading up to the mountain villages with the main aim of seeing the snow monkeys. Snow monkey cuddly toys are big sellers.

Yet for all the fuss, there were only around 20 other people who made it through the blizzard that greeted us and trekked up the mountain pool to watch the monkeys as they soaked in the hot water.