Snow Monkeys - January 25, 2019

First of all, I need to apologize. It has been a month since I have made a post. My excuse is taxes and life in general have kept me busy. I have two posts in the 'Draft' stage and two still floating around my head so hopefully I will get caught up soon, but time will tell.

Now, about the Snow Monkeys: The snow monkeys are actually Japanese macaques. They are famous for soaking in hot springs to warm up during the winter months. A park, Jigokudani Yaen-Koen, was created to help visitors spend time with the monkeys. The park is a ~3 hour drive from where we live so we decided to book a tour and let someone else do the driving. On the way we stopped at a travel stop with farm stand and had the opportunity to try the different varieties of locally grown apples. I am emabarassed to admit the Fugi is still my favorite local variety. Once we arrived at the park it was time for a much needed walk. The path up to the park was steep, like all hiking here is, but it was not too long.

On the way we passed an onsen, a traditional public bathing house, and a beautiful spring fed stream.

Once we were in the park there were monkeys EVERYWHERE! They are wild monkeys and they come and go as they wish. They didn't care about us at all, although we were warned not to make eye contact.

The monkey's only get in the water when it is cold outside. Aparently the monkeys did not think it was cold because only one monkey took a soak while we were there. I have to say my face did not agree with them as my cheeks were freezing!

Another highlight were the baby monkeys. They are SO cute and SO fun to watch.

After seeing the monkeys we "warmed up" by eating apple ice cream and drinking hot chocolate under a patio heater. The apple flavor of the ice cream was amazing and the whipped cream on the hot chocolate was incredible. I am not typically a fan of whipped cream but the cream here has a higher fat content than in the US and you can taste the difference. To give you an idea of how cold it was: My ice cream did not melt, at all, the entire time I was eating it while standing under the heater. That, in itself, was a first for me!