Yudanaka (or in Nick speak: Monkey-san)
Whilst not in Yudanaka per-se, Jigokudani Yaen-Koen (or wild monkey park) is a strange place designed to get humans as close to the monkeys as possible, but not in a very attractive way. The place is famous for its wild monkeys (or to give them their proper names gelada baboons) that sit in hot pools to keep warm in the cold winter months. We stayed in Korakukan ryokan which lies just underneath the monkey park and on arrival we were quite disappointed – it being one of the more expensive places we are staying in whilst in Japan. It is a ramkshackeled old wooden place in need of some serious tlc. However, it grew on us then longer we were there – partly due to the food (dinner & breakfast, whilst typcially Japanese – were delicious), partly due to the outside onsen (which is known for also having to odd monkey in it), partly due to its general Japanese-ish-ness (if that is a word!) but generally down to monkey watching!
We found yukata (the bedrobes you are given), which it turns out that everyone turns up for dinner in – apart from the westerners – and green tea in our room – which all felt very Japanese. The room also looked out over the monkey park.
We were worried that there would be no monkeys (as there was no snow around) but I think that they are there all year round, partly due to the fact that there is a little man who seems to feed them on a fairly regular basis. They were everywhere – and not the slightest bit interested in us humans – more interested in generally annoying each other or picking fleas from each other. There were some very contented looking beasts having their fleas picked! The park itself is not very beautiful – lots of pipes (which the monkeys are very good at sliding around on) and concrete. It felt quite manufactured, but the monkeys were still wild & the manufacturing was there to get us humans close to them.
There were a few monkeys in the hot pools when we arrived, so certainly weren’t diappointed on that score…this website has a live webcam (remember that Japan is 9 hours ahead of UK time and the sun goes down at 5pm) http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm
We had our first experience of an onsen at the ryokan, once we’d worked out which one was the mixed outside bathing area (we ended up in the womens only one at first (oops)). We went after tea & looked up at the stars and were grateful that there were no monkeys in with us at the time as it was quite dark and they have sharp teeth!
We can’t upload photos here at the moment, but once we get back to Tokyo I’ll put some up.
Tags: Japan, Monkeys, Travel
Jenni
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