Wild Snow Monkeys Bathing in Secret Japanese Hot Springs | Japan Vlog
I have a little bit of PTSD when it comes to monkeys. Wow, look at this. Yo, they’re just chilling there. Thing is dead, not in the in the water for some reason. So, that one’s been there for at least like couple minutes, three or four minutes, just dipping his tongue or lip. And there’s another one doing the same thing there. I wonder if their lips are getting really cold. Welcome to Jigo Kadani Snow Monkey Park. I thought that was a monkey behind me. Um, so this is where the wild snow monkeys are here in Japan. Um, this is the route going up. Um, this is the forest. Obviously, there’s fresh snow. Um, but you got to be careful walking through these. If you do have hiking boots, bring them. I’m just wearing my normal trainers and it might get slippy on the way down. Um, yeah. So, you got to be very careful with your steps. So, any any kind of snow boots or like a spiky ones like the one that you can put on top of the the trainers, I think it’s it would be recommended. Right. So, these guys are taken off pie. So the the purpose of coming here is to see the the snow monkey. Um you might have seen it viral on on the internet. Um so they’re monkey that um I think this is the only breed of monkeys in the world. The only place in the world where monkeys um bathe in the hotring in the natural hotring. It’s called onen. So monkey onen. It’s quite an incredible spectacle if we do get to see it. It’s quite um so it’s not a very like challenging hike. You can see that um various age group are taking the have taken the route. So there’s nothing else. There’s no um you can’t take cars or anything. So you have to walk these this 1.8 km. So it roughly takes about 27 minutes to get to the top. It’s very chilly. When we got off the car down the car park, we thought it was warm, but it’s gradually getting colder obviously with the forest as well. There’s no sunlight coming through, so it’ll be much cooler. What’s the prediction? Are you going to see the monkey? [Music] Is monkey going to be there or not? If not, I think we might have to dip this guy in cuz he’s 300 lb. What? Up there? Well, you can eat up there. There’s a restaurant up there, it looks like. So, 1.3 km left to the snow monkey park. Are we really different? I doubt. I think the monkeys here are much more civilized and much more calmer than most of the humans around the world. Quick bow. Must be Japanese guy. Man, if you slip down here. Oh, just talked about slipping and nearly it’s nearly gone. But yeah, if you do slip down here, might be game over for some. So, I’m going to walk on this side. Even though if it’s it’s muddy. Did you see it? Yes. So, they’re up there? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Plenty of them. All right. Cool. Good news. Good news, guys. Game on. All right, I’m going to watch my step. One slip and gain over. Very interesting fact. Uh so female give birth to a single infant every other year. Pregnancy lasts about 180 days and she’ll give birth during the night. Each female will have around 10 babies in her lifetime. Very interesting. Interesting. It’s muddy as as he gets. Oh, my man’s doing it in slippers. So, it might not be too bad, guys. I might make I might have made it a bit too extreme. If they could do it in slippers, I could do my trainers. Look at the It’s It’s not fresh as such, but still like freshish. Oh man. So there’s a literally a walking path for you. So there’s if there’s a will, there’s a way. So luckily you can walk on the on the ledge and there’s um this little trench flowing down, but this is not this is cold water, not hot. Then we come to this little point um where you can take a little rest, take a breather um day in the life of a monkey. Right, I might quickly read this, summarize it. The timing of the of their leaving may vary. All male monkeys will eventually leave their original communities. In most cases, they roam alone. In autumn, these roaming males will approach female of another troop with the hope of mating with them. Male monkeys within the troop are hostile towards these intruders. But in spite of this, some female will mate with the lone males. So basically solo traveler travelers. Um generally most of these lone male will leave the troop when mating season is over. Yeah, that’s the that’s life where every single um species in the animal kingdom offsprings hot springs and the female uh remain in their original troop their whole life. There are many more females and the children within the troop because of the male mis tendency to leave the group. relative relatives with the troops such as mothers and the children, granduh grandparents and the children as well as siblings will tend to stay close to one another. They eat, sleep and relax together and generally rely on one another. Very nice. Very nice. So as as even in the monkey community, females are a lot more stable than male and caring and nurturing. Right. I think um we have another 5 minutes of walk maybe and then then on the way we get to this I think we walked about 15 minutes now halfway maybe just over halfway. Um we get to this beauty the river flowing down there and uh yeah can you see one there probably come down for food. Oh, so the whole area is is theirs. And then this side is the the forest. It’s like pine trees or conifers. I don’t know what trees these are. Oh, there’s one there running. Hopefully they’re not aggressive. Um, yeah. So, fantastic view. Can you see like little steam coming out there? And that might be a some sort of spring. Hopefully, this is a natural spring. That’s what I think. It’s not created. Even if it’s created, I’m quite quite spectacular. Shows the gener generosity of Japanese people. So that’s that same village from the other side. There are a lot of treers around. I’ve noticed I think there’s another route here for for um that takes you obviously to this snow monkey park. Um right and then there was another route that I saw. So it’s 800 yen to and then 400 for for uh children under 18. Wow, this is mad. Literally the the forest is on your head as you’re walking up. Okay. Yeah. Go. [Music] Sweet. Keep marching up. Yo, these guys are bright running down. I think we’re here now. I can see one hut. That’s probably the entrance. You could smell something and I think that’s as uncle said that’s sulfur there. It’s very strong. Smells like sewage. Oh, what a spectacular view from top. Wow. Love this. Absolutely love this. Yeah, it’s in the same place. I think to climb up and it goes really like vertically up probably I would say about 60° 70° slope right this is as far as you’ll get um for free and then you You need obviously need a ticket to go through. Right. So, you’re going to have to wait for our friend to come and we’ll get a ticket and go in. Right. 2-minute walk from the from the entrance hut. Um, so we walk down here or you can even view from the top if you wanted. But this is where Oh. They’re literally everywhere, man. Only thing is I’m scared scared of monkeys. So, look, they’re fighting. Play fighting. Oh, damn. Look at the little baby. Hey, cutie. Oh. Oh, this is so close. There’s so many of these. Oh, look at these. Roly pony. Comes the big one. Must be the alpha male. Ready to leave the village. Look for a mate. Right. Should walk up. Yeah. Might do. One sec. Right. following on. I can see the the hotring now. There a lot of people there. I just hope I’m I’m on my own and I hope I don’t get attacked by these monkeys. As I said, I’m loads of them. They’re scared of the staff. No one’s saying anything, man. Such a quiet place. Everyone just observing. Oh, look at this. I think it’s dead. Not in the in the water for some reason. Trying to find the lice or something. Look at that one there. The king. They’re so calm. Oh, there’s another one. Biggie coming through. Oh, he’s going to get in. No, she’s trying to drink the water, I think. Yeah, it’s too hot for these guys because the sun’s out. If the sun wasn’t out, they would have taken a dip in this hot spring. Wow. This is truly truly amazing. Outstanding. There’s literally no reaction. We’re literally um less than a meter away, but they don’t even buzz. Nothing. No budging, nothing, man. Oh, there’s a a little one there. Oh, man. There are hundreds of these. Hundred. More than hundreds. All right, let me take some other photos and If you know what’s going on, just drop in the comments. But I don’t think any of these are going to get in. It’s nice and sunny outside, so rather enjoy the sun. Right. It might be over and out from here. Um so this is this is all it is here actually. This is that one pool there. Um with monkeys waiting to take a dip and then the whole valley which is full of monkeys as well. Um this is their kind of territory. So fortunately we got to see this cuz this is the only place on earth that this happens that they naturally are bathing in in hotring. Um but unfortunately they’re not taking the dip. So you’re not going to see them wet which is good. They’re taking you know sunbathing. There you go. There’s one that’s taking a full nap. That’s the level of relaxation I need in my life. Wow. Highly, highly recommended. Um, if you’re ever down this sort of area, cuz obviously people explore the Tokyo’s, the Osakas, the Kyodos. But if you’re down this end, North Japan is completely different. It’s much more beautiful. Um, snowy mountains. So, one of them, yeah, apparently one of the monkeys looking at me, um, probably wants to subscribe to my channel. So, if you haven’t subscribe, um, but yeah, this side of Japan is absolutely beautiful. Completely different. um snowy obviously, a lot of ski slopes, um lot of uh hiking, nature, if you’re a nature lover, I think and if you’re if you want not not the hustle and hustle and bustle of the of the city, I think towards this side of Japan is obviously you should explore this as well. So, I would say start in Hokkaido and then take a trip down all the way to Tokyo or even further um down south. There’s other islands as well down south, but this is definitely one to um one to witness. Over and out.
Discover the magical world of Nagano’s famous snow monkeys as they relax in steamy hot springs in Jigokudani Monkey Park, Japan. These Japanese macaques are the only monkeys in the world known to bathe in natural hot springs — a truly unique sight set against the snowy landscapes of the Japanese Alps.
📍 Location: Jigokudani Monkey Park, Nagano, Japan
📅 Best Viewing Season: Winter (December to March)
🐒 Species: Japanese Macaque (Snow Monkey)
🎥 In this video, you’ll witness:
Snow monkeys bathing in hot springs
Natural winter behaviors in their snowy habitat
Close-up footage of playful macaques
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