The 50-hour Adventure: Sequence 3 aka The Snow Monkeys!

One of the big reasons we, or at least I, chose to come to Nagano was for the Snow Monkeys.  Any chance I can see some kind of wild animal, count me in!

If you keep up on Photography at all, read National Geographic or anything of the like, chances are you've seen snippets of these curious little monkeys from Yamanouchi, Nagano.  Their beet red faces, snow covered fur and blatant indifference to being in front of a camera has caught the attention of many photographers over the last few years, and more and more photographs surface in photography competitions and in nature magazines. 

Besides the fact these little macaques live in a frigid temperature, scaling mountains, jumping from thin branch to thin branch with the greatest of ease, they are famous for taking long spa days.  Japan is well known for the onsen peppered across the country, and the snow monkeys by Yamanouchi resort aren't letting humans soak up all the fun.

Oh, hey.

While on the train to Yamanouchi, 15 mins to arrival, we discovered that in order to take the last train back to Nagoya, we would have to immediately jump right back on the train.  Bummer.  Thankfully, I was with someone who spoke what was going on in my head:

"Well, we came all the way here to see these guys.  Do you wanna just get off, go see the monkeys and figure it out later?" Um. Hell yeah.  We quickly figured out when we could catch the last bus back to the train station, hopped off the train, into a cab and started our journey to the monkeys.

It started snowing pretty heavily once we got out of the cab, so I took advantage of our timing and snapped a few shots of the white blankets forming on top of our surroundings. 

 

Shinto Shrine

In order to get to monkey camp, we had to take an amazing walk through the forest.  I felt like I was in some kind of Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.  The snow was thick, the scene was steep and we started discussing different ways to deal with an avalanche.  Apparently, you can't tell which way is up if you are buried in snow.  The walk was so awesome though, it might have been worth it. 

In the forest

Carrie looking up at the snowfall

Yamanouchi Resort

As we neared, we came upon the resort.  It kind of ruined the scenario to see concrete evidence of society again, but it was still so storybook and picturesque that I can only really say this after-the-fact. 

I want to apologise right now because I didn't bring my SD card for my DSLR with me to Japan, so for this entire trip, and still, I only have my iPhone and some film cameras.  Having my DSLR would have been amazing for this.  I'm sure my fingers would have preferred staying inside gloves opposed to being subjected to the icy winds and snow just to use the touch screen of my iPhone.  Actually, I decided to head back into the museum and shop once my fingers got too cold to register on my iPhone.  I'm still kicking myself for completely forgetting about the L-CA in my pocket.  I also tried taking polaroids, but the polaroid back for my Diana F+ is broken.

Nonetheless, try to picture yourself here- freezing cold, trying not to slip on the ice, inhaling the scent of hot sulfur and watching monkeys bathe between slimy turds, getting so close they could beat the shit out of you with one swipe.

What's going on over there with Charley?

Not happy.

High Five!

Little Baby Macaques

 This monkey really upset me and made me realize how intrusive we were being.  I was only further bummed out when I went back to the museum/shop and overheard a woman talking about "feeding time".  I mentioned they shouldn't feed wild animals, to which she retorted, "But it's the only way we can make sure they stay here for all the visitors to see."

 

On the way back, I stopped to get a hot tea from a vending machine, and spent about ten minutes properly bundling up now that the sun was heading to bed.  This proved tricky when it came to actually drinking my tea.

Nuts from the cold.

On the train ride home, we decided to ride the train as far as possible- 11:45pm into Natsugawa.  Carrie would have to get up at 6am or some insane thing like that to catch the train to Nagoya and make it to work in time.  We secured a cheap place to sleep across from the train station, and then started watching "Human Centipede"* (Hence "Sequence One to Three" on these titles).  I DO NOT recommend this movie to anyone, especially after eating, or especially in a public place.  We ended up turning it off half way through because we were so paranoid that everyone around us would think we were freaks.

Gomen ne to all my friends out there who are big fans. 

*Speaking of which, I don't think that movie is 100% medically accurate.  There is a risk of dehydration for positions 2 and 3, as well as no nutrition coming from position 1, just crap. Literally.