Yesterday we explored Arashiyama, a region on the outskirts of Kyoto. Along with the usual assortment of temples and shrines that just about every area of Japan seems to boast, Arashiyama is famous for its Spring and Autumn colours (wrong time of year for those), and its Monkey Park. Actually, I can't believe it's taken me this long to visit the Monkey Park, although I didn't fully realise what it was until quite recently.
The monkey park is located at the top of a pretty decently sized hill. As we climbed, we saw progressively more and more monkeys, until we reached the top, where there was quite a tribe. The monkeys are Japanese Macaque, commonly known as Snow Monkeys, because the species survives further north than any other primate other than humans. Today, however, it was not snowing (obviously), and this particular tribe is not the one with the famous hot springs snow photos. They are, however, to my eyes at least, incredibly gorgeous.
With a further small payment over the park entry fee, we got the privilege of feeding the monkeys, albeit through a wire mesh. They were greedy little blighters! The large males especially did not appreciate any of the upstart youngsters getting fed, and made their displeasure known. As a result, I unfortunately didn't manage to get any good photos of the little ones, but I got some good ones of the bigger monkeys
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| Do I smell food? |
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| Is that for me? |
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| Got it! Nyah nyah |
There was also some pretty scenery in the area, but it didn't compare to the excitement of seeing the monkeys.
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