Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Monkey Hot Tub

On a day trip from Hakuba I went to go see Japan's world-famous snow monkeys. This group of monkeys live in a beautiful valley and keep warm during the winter months by bathing in one of Japan's many natural hot springs - it's the only place in the world you can see monkeys bathe in the wild.

They aren't bothered by people which meant we were able to get right up close to them. They were fascinating to watch, and had it not been for the subzero temperature I could have easily stayed there all day observing them.

Sneaky monkey stealing some man's food

About to enjoy some instant noodles

Posing

Such intense gazes

Beautiful valley

Holding her baby

Captivated by the monkeys

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Sooooo cool!! (pun definitely intended)

Anonymous said...

Those faces!!

Deanna

Wondering and Wandering said...

@ Amie - sillllly, thanks for reading!
@ Deanna - Amazing facial expressions!

thefwp. said...

wowww they are SO cool. very cute little creatures. I would have had a hard time leaving them also.

thefwp. said...

oops sorry alex it is ayns! i just signed in through gmail and totally forgot i made a blog a while ago with the intent to post baking photos, has not happened quite yet haha. take care bye for now!

ImaMountainGirl said...

These are really good photos!

Wondering and Wandering said...

@ Ayns - the cold made it much easier to leave or else I might still be there... I want to look at your blog too!
@ ImaMountain Girl - thank you!

Anonymous said...

Wow, very cool!
Brenda

Dan (The Stupid Foreigner) said...

Haha awesome. Can't believe I spent 3 years in Japan and never saw a single monkey :/ Am curious though, how do they get dry after their dip in the hot spring? Would have thought they'd freeze when they got out.

Wondering and Wandering said...

It was great, definitely a major highlight of Japan for me! Pretty sure they just have really thick fur so they don't end up really feeling the water but they're in the water all day, they only really get out at night to sleep. You'll have to go check them out one day!