Japan : Tokyo, Nagano
Winter 2018
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Snow monkeys everywhere at Jigokudani Park in Nagano
(Jan-2018) |
Journal Entry... What's in a place? Fear not faithfuls. Jigokudani, meaning "Hell Valley", is only a description for the steam and boiling water bubbling out of crevices in the valley amidst surrounding steep cliffs and hostile forests. Jigokudani is famous for its wild Japanese macaques, or snow monkeys, that descend to the valley during winter, in troops, to sit in the warm onsen, or hot springs.
2-jan: Journey to Jigokudani...
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| Nagano train stop |
It was a third attempt to go to Jigokudani park and see the snow monkeys. For some reason, hubby and I could not complete the journey regardless of a flexible JR East Pass. On the first attempt, hubby had to cancel because he suffered food poisoning from a chicken skewer food trip the night before, unfortunately, and was not up for the journey.
On a second attempt, we made it to Nagano station, but decided to head back to Tokyo, it being late to proceed to the park after 4PM.
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2-km footpath
in Jigokudani forest |
Travel time to Jigokudani park, from Tokyo, takes a combination of: 2 hours on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagano; 1.5 hours on the bus ride to Yamanouchi; and 2-km. footpath in the Jigokudani mountain forest which took me 1 hour to trail, because of slippery snow made up of crust and slush by the time.
In winter, Jigokudani park closes at 4PM.
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| Jigokudani Park amidst steaming crevices, steep cliffs and snow-covered forest in Nagano |
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| Blanket of snow than big balls of fire at the so-called, "Hell Valley", at Jigokudani Park |
There's one Top Thing to do at Jigokudani Monkey Park, that is, to spot a snow monkey. I have never been anywhere near real monkeys before... or none that I know of, lol. The Snow Monkey Pass had warned, "PARK IS NOT A ZOO." Snow monkeys are wild monkeys and thus: Do not touch or startle the monkeys... Do not look into their eyes... Do not feed the monkeys. Most importantly, do not bathe with the snow monkeys in the hot spring, as the hot spring is not for human use.
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| Snow monkeys relaxing on a winter day in an onsen (hot spring) at Jigokudani Park |
The snow monkeys did behave like a human, sitting in the onsen relaxing on a winter day amidst the crowd of tourists haggling for a Nat Geo photo with a snow monkey. Tip: Be careful with exceptional hairy rascals at Jigokudani Park. I, myself, had witnessed one snow monkey prying open the backpack of this guy engrossed in taking photos from his camera-- the snow monkey had unzipped a backpack compartment and took a piece of paper from it, before scampering off to the forest. While engrossed myself to that snow monkey encounter, I did not notice another rascal of a snow monkey was (also) inching its way towards me, eyeing the iPhone I was holding. Good thing, I caught the rascal's attempt (just) in time, whilst the snow monkey trotted innocently past me.
