Monkey Prison

Near Kinugawa Onsen station in the hills of Tochigi Prefecture is a ropeway which will ferry passengers up a few hundred vertical meters to a “monkey sanctuary”. It appears more to be a monkey prison.

 (The idle monkey trainer was under the mistaken impression it was more of a wilderness preserve in which monkeys lived.)

Stepping from the tram car, one is assaulted instantly with the stench of close-quartered monkeys. Visitors to the facility are ushered into a small path extending into the monkey prison yard. Through the double layer of chain-link fence visitors may feed the monkeys by extending food pellets (conveniently for sale in the visitors’ area, of course) using a wooden stick. 

The monkeys climb all over the fences, the roof and each other, positioning for attention and food. They extend their forelegs through the fences, forlorn expressions on their faces. They pull and bite on the fencing, bounce and scream. The larger, more dominate monkeys exert their influence in the group to chase off younger, smaller rivals for the pellets, while (human) children squeal with delight and pull back the sticks so they can try to get pellets to the younger, cuter monkeys.

There are hiking trails up the mountain and around the top, which could have helped salvage the afternoon. But, an apparent infestation of mountain leeches put a stop to that. Having never encountered a mountain leech, the idle monkey trainer was somewhat surprised to learn that (1) leeches inhabit mountains and not just waterways, and (2) that the bite of the mountain leech is apparently very painful and results in lots of bleeding. It was strongly suggested that walking the trails in shorts and sandals would be a very bad idea. Apparently the staff at the top of the tram had already encountered hikers that morning suffering from multiple leech bites.

Instead, the idle monkey trainer returned to the public hot spring in front of the train station to soak his feet and enjoy a drink. And where the drunken security guard informed him that although the pump had been shut off at five o’clock he was welcome to stay as long as the water was warm, and repeatedly that the security guard had been attending a summer festival at which he was given several free beers, presumably including the one he was carrying around at the time. 


(The monkey prison was visited in August.)