Our day began with us donning our Yukatas and enjoying a delightful buffet breakfast at the hotel. Today's mission: see the famous snow monkeys of Jigokudani Yaen Koen, or "Hell's Valley Snow Monkey Park." While typically thought of as a winter activity, we'd heard the monkeys stick around even in the warmer months. The park is a natural habitat where Japanese Macaques come to bathe in the hot springs.
We decided to walk to the park as Google maps told us it was about 3km and would take around 30 minutes, which sounded easy enough. Not quite… We soon found ourselves trudging up an almost vertical incline in 34-degree heat. To add insult to injury, it soon dawned on us that the 3km mark was just the turn-off for the Snow Monkey park. Another 2.4km lay ahead. At this point, Dave was less than thrilled, bemoaning our decision not to take the free shuttle from the hotel.
Finally, we arrived at the monkey park... only to be greeted by a sign declaring "No monkeys." This disheartening message was paired with another sign informing us of an additional 1.6km walk. We collapsed onto a bench at the gift shop, seriously contemplating whether to continue. We notice a couple of other tourists descend the path and we ask them whether there were indeed monkeys. To our delight they say there are!
Reinvigorated by this news, we found a second wind and tackled the final leg of the journey. Beyond the forest path, we were greeted by five to seven lively Japanese Macaques. Some lounged on the walking bridge, while others engaged in mutual grooming sessions on the rocks by the natural hot springs – a wonderful sight that made our earlier struggles worthwhile.
On our way back, we stopped at a small restaurant we'd spotted earlier, boasting an impressive 13 beers on tap. After our monkey adventure, a cold pint and some lunch were exactly what we needed. Feeling refreshed, we made our way back to the hotel. The mostly downhill return journey was a much more pleasant experience than our morning trek.
Back at the hotel, we took a couple of hours to relax and recover in our room before heading down to the lounge for some pre-dinner drinks. The plan was to dine at the rooftop bar and restaurant, which didn't open until 8pm.
When the time came, we made our way to the rooftop and were seated inside one of the igloo-like structures. Menus in hand, we were ready to enjoy a nice meal with a view. However, just as it began to rain, we were promptly informed that the rooftop was now closed, but we could have our meal brought to our room.
A bit disappointed, we retreated to our room to await our dinner. The meal consisted of vegetable canapés (which turned out to be wrapped in salmon) and a cheeseburger (with an unexpected apple twist). Despite these culinary curveballs, the food was quite delicious. This meal reinforced a realisation we'd been having throughout our trip: there doesn't seem to be such a thing as 'bad' food in Japan. Different? Absolutely. Unexpected? Often. But never bad.
The next morning, Steph decided to fully embrace the Japanese experience with a dip in the hotel's onsen. These traditional hot springs are way hotter than you might expect!
We couldn't leave without indulging in one more delicious breakfast at the hotel before we bid farewell to Yamanouchi and boarded our train back to Tokyo for the final chapter of our Japanese adventure.
