Snow Monkeys at Jigokudani, Japan

[bakubo]

In January 2020 during the last trip we went on before the coronavirus pandemic hit we spent 3 weeks traveling in Nagano-ken in Japan. One of the places we went was to Jigokudani to see the Snow Monkeys. It had been exactly 50 years since I had first seen them in Life magazine and I always wanted to go. After all these years I finally got around to it. Here are a few photos (remember that animal photography is not my primary interest):

http://www.bakubo.com/Galleries%202/Jap ... index.html

Here are just 3 from the album:







Here is the cover of the January 30, 1970 issue with a Snow Monkey. I was just 13 years old when I saw it, but finally in January 2020 I got there to see them.

Japan_snow_monkey_Life.jpg (198.12 KiB) Viewed 9045 times

[jbtaylor]

Magic.
JT

[sury]

Wow. Superb, as always Henry. Just superb.

Sury

[bakubo]

Thank you. Hard to believe that it took me exactly 50 years to get there. It is rather inconvenient because it is out of the way, far away from Tokyo and other big cities, and I wanted to go in winter when there is snow. In the winter when it is cold is when the mountain monkeys like to come down to the onsen (hot spring) to soak in the hot water. I don't have a bucket list, but if I did then this was something that would have been on it. I am not joking, I have thought about this for 50 years ever since seeing that Life magazine cover. Over the years I have talked about it to several people, including my wife, many times.

About 20 years ago a Canadian buddy in Vancouver mentioned to me how he had seen the cover of a magazine when he was a kid that had a snow monkey in Japan. He was surprised that I knew exactly the magazine he was talking about. He also said he had always wanted to see them. He passed away a few years ago though without having the chance.

[Fotogeorge]

Beautiful captures of the human-like emotions, in the faces of the monkeys.

[ValeryD]

Nice!

[bakubo]

Thank you!

It was cool to see them. They loved soaking in the hot natural spring water. And they would hang around there in the steam to stay warm even when they weren't in the water.

[aster]

.

Talk about childhood dreams realizing!

Very nice shots, Bakubo.


Thanks for sharing,
Yildiz

[bakubo]

Thank you, Yildiz!

It sure was great to finally see them. The only other traveling we have done in 2020 is we flew up to Sapporo in September and stayed a couple of months.

Fingers crossed the vaccines start getting us back to a somewhat more normal life and travel in a few more months!