I'm stark bollock naked in a pool of volcanic water when I have my first close encounter with one of the Japanese macaques, or snow monkeys, that live and bathe in the rocky pass known as Hell Valley.
It's a scraggly looking beast, a little under a metre tall, with matted fur and a dangling testicular sac that looks like a bashed-up Roma tomato. As a light storm of sleet falls, the monkey sidles up to the edge of the bath, where the rising steam has raised the temperature a few degrees, and for a few seconds it stares at the water.
A Kodak moment in the hot tub with one of Japan's famous bathing apes — this is the reason I've caught a bullet train into Nagano prefecture's mountainous country. I feel excited, but also nervous. If the beast takes exception to me, my comparatively hairless body will be at the mercy of its simian claws.
But the monkey seems unconcerned by my presence. It hunches near the bath, absorbing heat from the steam. Then, after a few minutes, it takes off and bounds towards a steep slope nearby, without getting its toes wet.
A troop of around 270 macaques lives in Hell Valley, which is home to both the Korakukan inn and Jigokudani monkey park. The valley is crawling with them — they shimmy along cables, jump across roofs and lurk on windowsills. After years of living in a prime tourist attraction, they're not shy of humans, either.
It started with a soy bean
To get to the valley, you walk two kilometres along a bush track through a pine forest on the edge of Yudanaka, a small tourist town. The inn, a 250-year-old family business, is an architecturally baffling place, with intersecting stairwells and rustic bathing areas. It's simple and pleasant, but it's waking up and seeing a macaque loping past your window that makes the place a treat.
Take a short walk across a wooden bridge (which is treacherous in the winter) and you'll find the Jigokudani monkey park. If you've ever had the yearning to commune closely with your simian cousins, this is the place to do it. There are hundreds of the beasts. Some bicker with one another over territory. Others engage in activities that should not be described on a family-oriented website.
In the back corner of the park, there's a pool of hot water fed by a volcanic spring — the much-vaunted monkey bath. The macaques don't always get in of their own accord, but caretakers throw soy beans into the water. The monkeys dive in to grab the beans, then stick around to soak up the heat.
This may seem like a cheap trick but if it weren't for soy beans, the macaques may never have taken to baths in the first place. In 1963, a young female macaque waded into a hot spring to retrieve some beans. She liked it so much that she stayed in and other monkeys joined her soon after.
This behaviour spread throughout Mukubili's group and to other troops of macaques, which means that, like humans, macaques invent and pass on new behaviours. Scientists have observed macaques learning how to wash potatoes and make snowballs and these skills have spread throughout Japan.
Art and apes
Toshio Hagiwara is a photographer who works at the Jigokudani park as a caretaker. Born in the area, he's an encyclopaedic resource on the macaques that live in the valley.
He tells me the monkeys are not popular with the local farmers. In fact, several thousand are killed each year throughout Japan, to stop them raiding crops and terrifying local communities. The Jigokudani monkey park has in part been created to protect the macaques, which are listed as a threatened species. But the ready availability of food in the area has artificially swollen monkey populations, undermining the success of this operation.
Hagiwara's photos line the walls. One, of a baby macaque peering at the camera while grasping its mother's snow-encrusted fur, won a major international photography award. I ask him how long he's been photographing the monkeys. He tells me it's been 30 years but he still loves it.
After just two days away from the bustle of Tokyo, I reluctantly head back towards civilisation. I turn back for one last look at Hell Valley and see two macaques sitting on top of Korakukan inn. It's as though they've come to say goodbye, I think.
But then the big macaque grabs the smaller one, mounts it and begins gyrating its hips in a suspicious fashion. If this is some kind of monkey farewell, I don't want to stick around to see the end of it — a return to civilisation suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all.
Details
Getting there: From Tokyo, take the Shinkansen Asama bullet train to Nagano. At Nagano, change to the Nagano Dentatsu line to Yudanaka — be sure to catch a train that goes all the way there (it's the last station on the line). From Yudanaka Station, take a bus to Kanbayashi Onsen (show the ticket lady a picture of a macaque and she'll know where you're going). From there, it's a 30-minute walk to Hell Valley.
Costs: One night at Korakukan Inn costs around 10,000 yen (A$105) per person, including dinner and breakfast. Entry to the monkey park is 500 yen (A$5).
Fancy a swim with snow monkeys at Hell Valley in Japan? Maybe you've already been there? Let us know:
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