Snow Monkeys
25 feb 2007
Homo Sapiens Sapiens in action. It is one of the warmest winters ever this year in Japan, so unfortunately there was not much snow. In Tokyo there has not been snow this year, which is the first time in at least 130 years.
Ryokan at the border of the "money park". The monkeys are said to join the humans from time to time in the outdoor hot spring bath (lower right in the photo)
every day the monkeys come from the mountains/forest to this place called jigokudani-yaenkoen (Hell's valley monkey park) to take a bath in the onsen (hot spring bath)
Left to right: Me, Mae Rose, Tobi and Hasegawa-san. Hasegawa-san is Tobi's FACE volunteer. FACE is an program of the university that connects international visitors with Japanese people (volunteers).
On our way home Tobi was attacked by a monkey. It was hunting for our dried pineapple slices and climbed Tobi, who wisely dropped the package. Ofcourse I didn't have my camera ready at that time...
