{"id":2958,"date":"2024-12-04T18:31:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T09:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/?p=2958"},"modified":"2025-01-18T21:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T12:21:24","slug":"snow-monkeys-in-the-onsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/?p=2958","title":{"rendered":"Snow Monkeys in the onsen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Many tourists’ flock to the Jigokudani Monkey Park to see the world-famous snow monkeys. It\u2019s also famous in Japan but surprisingly, a lot of my friends have yet to see them. Why? The pictures are all over the internet and to some, they are just a bunch of monkeys who are taking a bath.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yes, it\u2019s true… but I want to emphasize that they are wild monkeys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are a lot of theories as to why these monkeys suddenly began entering the hot springs of their own volition. A famous local story is where a monkey saw an apple floating in the hot springs and in its attempt to get it, it fell in the water and happily discovered that it was nice. Then it snowballed into monkeys trying it out, at the same time they also happened to see many common folks enjoying the hot springs. Knowing monkeys being naturally curious, it\u2019s not surprising that the monkey eventually tried it for themselves. No one can really say which is the original story, but the fact remains that these wild monkeys learned the joys of hot springs. This brought different reactions from locals because as much as people want to protect them, they tend to disrupt the local businesses and pose a problem for inns and households. So, in 1964, the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park was built to not only protect these precious monkeys but also to let them continue being monkeys in their own private bath. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park is built a bit inside the mountain area, so it takes about 2km from the parking lot all the way to the park entrance. It’s not a difficult trail, there are some stairs but mostly flat overall. During wintertime, the path will be covered in snow, and it\u2019ll be quite slippery and narrow. It might be useful to bring slip-on crampons for shoes or just avoid high heels to avoid slipping and falling down. Also, I would like to emphasize that the monkeys are wild. They have signs and will inform you what you can and cannot do. If you bring food inside, they will smell it and will come running after you too. I saw a child bring snacks one time and it got crazy. So please make sure to follow the rules to protect yourself and the wild monkeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing all these monkeys relax in the bath makes me stare at them all day. There\u2019s something very humanlike to them and I enjoy seeing their mannerisms, with their legs stretched out and sleepy eyes, as they ignore all the \u201cpaparazzi\u201d around them. If you try to notice, most of the monkeys that take a bath are children or females. Most of the males I believe don\u2019t want to show their small statures and being vulnerable, which is why they just happily play and \u201cmonkey-ing\u201d around the park instead. I mean, they do have a hierarchy to follow and it’s fun to figure out which one is the troop leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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These furry and mischievous animals have captured the hearts of many people all over the world. I’m not exactly sure why but they are sure fun to look at. They’re carefree, like to fool around with their buddies and the adults are quite strict and judging everything to protect the family. Let us know if you decide to visit and share some of your favorite monkey stories!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Useful Links<\/h3><\/div><\/div>

Check out the Monkey Park Official Website JIGOKUDANI YAEN-KOEN<\/strong><\/a> for more information. Also, they do have a live camera so you can check whether they’re there or not.
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Back to Nagano Prefecture<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s also famous in Japan but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1,17],"tags":[65,33,19],"class_list":["post-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nagano-pref","category-travel","category-yamanouchi","tag-article","tag-nagano","tag-travel"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png",697,929,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-225x300.png",225,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png",697,929,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png",697,929,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png",697,929,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png",697,929,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mei","author_link":"https:\/\/www.cl-outdoor.net\/?author=2"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Many tourists’ flock to the Jigokudani Monkey Park to see the world-famous snow monkeys. 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