I don't believe in bucket lists, they're so morbid. I believe we have to enjoy the things that life brings to us rather than seek out things to make us happy. Having said that there are of course things that I dream of experiencing - things like going to Antarctica, seeing the northern lights, swimming with whales and spending time with snow monkeys. Oh wait! I just did that last one!
I have been intrigued with snow monkeys since reading about them in an old National Geographic. They are simply the most fascinating and hilarious creatures. Most monkeys live in tropical climates, but not these cheeky critters. They are Japanese Macaques and are the northern most residing primates (apart from humans) in the world. Their fluffy coats make them super cute but don't be fooled, they're feisty when they want to be. We saw heaps of monkey scraps while we were there. We saw lots of monkey grooming too, and monkey bathing - in their very own monkey baths!
The snow monkeys are located in Yamanouchi, an onsen (hot baths) village, about an hour's journey away from Nagano in central Japan. We took the trip on a lovely spring day, training it, bussing it and then walking to the monkey baths. I took somewhere in the vicinity of a million photos! Not even kidding. See? ...
Phew. That's some epic monkey photo taking right there! Haha. But I wasn't alone in that frenzied activity, trust me! While we are here I'll throw in a few pictures of Nagano too. We really only visited it as a portal to the snow monkeys, but it's a lovely town in its own right and I kinda wish we'd had more time there to look around. It's a ski resort town and I imagine that it is bustling in ski season, but while we were there it was fairly quiet which made it easy to explore the local sights and temples. Here's a few shots from our time there:
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