Monkey Park

Monkeys are indigenous to the Kyoto region and live in the wooded hills that border the city, but they are rarely seen (we have just had one sighting during our five months here). However, there is one place where you are almost guaranteed to see monkeys, and that is the Arashiyama Monkey Park in the far west of greater Kyoto. As part of our Saturday day trip out west, we decided to pay a visit.

We knew we were getting close when cartoon monkeys started featuring on the sides of vending machines:

The monkey park is at the summit of a fairly steep hill. Here we are about to embark on the climb, next to a sign telling us not to do something pertaining to the monkeys:

The monkeys indigenous to Japan are macaques, and they are the northernmost species of monkey in the world. Up on top of the hill, dozens of monkeys were wandering around in the open:

Temperatures were in the low 90's, so many of the monkeys had retreated to the shade, and some were doing a bit of mutual grooming:

There is one indoor area where you can buy food to feed to the monkeys. Interestingly, the monkeys there are free to roam outside, while the humans are inside the cage ... .

We were fortunate to be visiting about a month after this year's babies started to be born, so there were a fair number of nursing mothers with small offspring:

                                                                                                                         photo credit: Sage C-B

This particular baby was very interested in the wire mesh, both for climbing up and for chewing on!

                                                                                                                         photo credit: Sage C-B

Chloe + macaque, with views of Kyoto and the eastern hills in the background:

A monkey seeing us off: