I spent the day amongst the company of monkeys living in the mountains of Nagano.
It is one of the most natural habitats I have had the freedom to be at one with the animals...no bars, cages, feeding or glass boxes and zoo keepers interefering with the monkeys daily life.
It was a long drive-and the first for me here in Japan. Uni mate Sal and I left from Kanazawa around 8am and we arrived in the tiny village-hidden in the tall trees at about 12pm. The driving was fun-listening to lots of music and singing along the way. The car was automatic [again, my first tiime with one of them] - Toyota Vitz, and had a Navigator-so directions were easy.
The actual monkey residence was up a wind cliff camouflaged in a forest in a place called Jigokudani in Shiga Heights. We had a good 20 minutes of wild woods to get through before we saw the cutest species on this planet.
It was so hard not to scream 'oh my gosh look at them' out loud. Instead we had to contain the excitement in honour of the residents of the natural habitat. The were hardly any people and hundreds of monkeys just chilling, having an onsen and relaxing in the 40 degree celcius water. There were babies too...like little new born cheeky monkeys being carried around by their mummy and daddys, there were some little brother and sister types chasing and fighting, there were some baby monkeys swimming under the water!
Sal and I were in our element, as monkeys are our favourite animals. We both agreed that really, there are no words to describe what we felt to sit and stroll amongst them. They didn't even act as if we were there.
Well, only pictures can do their cuteness justice.....
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