Arrived at Nagano in time to drop our bags off at our next stay, a monastery, then headed off to see the Jigokudani snow monkeys. Tonight’s stay will be in a typical ryokan type accommodation, tatami mat floor, 4-inch bed mat and shared facilities. Oh boy!

Weather has been very good for our tour and looks to be that way for the foreseeable future, mid-60’s, no rain.

Dropped off our stuff, got back on the shuttle bus, and headed off to see the monkeys. Now, even though they are called, “snow monkeys” they live here and can be seen all year round. Their actual name is, Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata for Dan Craft), an Old World species of monkey native to Japan. The only place in the world where you can witness these monkeys bathing in hot springs is here in Nagano, Japan. The males can live to be 28 years old, while the females tend to max out around 32 years.

The group of monkeys we will see today are most likely all females. Once a male mates with the female, they leave and don’t return. Next season the males look for a new female to mate with and so on. The babies stay with their mothers and grandmothers. Males can sometimes remain in the group but usually at the age of 2 they prefer to be with other males and leave the group.

It’s about a 30-minute slog up a moderate hill to get to the monkeys. There was a little snow on the ground making walking a real slog, lots of mud! Didn’t seem to bother some people, even passed a woman wearing sandals. Guess it was a mobile mud pack for the toes.

The start of the trail to the snow monkeys

What the trail turned into…Muck!

Geyser steam

Amazing! Had the place to ourselves

Plenty of monkeys hanging around. They are so used to tourist, they will walk along side with you for a stretch, then wander off. These are still wild animals so we made no attempt to feed them. We saw a couple of people trying to pet a monkey, that they don’t like. They snapped at the person then ran off. Good thing they didn’t connect with that bite, could have been pretty nasty.

Most of the time the monkeys are busy preening each other, sleeping, or looking for insects to eat. We didn’t see any in the hot springs, except for an occasional drink.

Babysitting duty

See. I told you there was another monkey on the other side.

He’s right. Look at all dem monkeys!

How about now?

If I stick this landing…

Little to the right…

Mom and baby

Will you look at those bugs

Back down the hill and time for a quick lunch at the park center before going back to Nagano for a quick tour around the temple. Tomorrow we will be up early, before 6am, to make our way back to the temple to be blessed by the head monk. Afterwards, we will go inside the temple and listen to the morning blessings. But first, back to our ryokan for the night. I found extra mattresses in our closet so I’m going to make a thicker bed than the one they gave us. Still going to have to crawl on the floor to get up but maybe a better night’s sleep.