Monkeys are basically tropical animals, but the Nihon-zaru is an exception. It lives as far as Aomori Prefecture. However, there are a few monkeys in Hokkaido that like to enjoy the benefits of the hot spring in Yunokawa, Hakodate. We can see the Nihon-zarus enjoying the onsen in the Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden. I went there in January, 2021. The entrance fee was 300 yen per person, and I entered the botanical garden first. The botanical garden is a glass front building warmed by the heat of the hot water from the onsen. There are so many tropical flowers, like poinsettia, bougainvillea, angel’s trumpet and so on. My wife was really excited to see the money tree, also known by the Latin name Crassula ovata, because of its greedy name!
After the botanical garden, we went to the monkey mountain just outside of the building. There were 40-50 monkeys in the area. The hot spring was in the center and almost 20 monkeys were soaking in the bath just like humans. Some monkeys were grooming each other, others drowsed at the edge of the pond. If you’re lucky enough, then you should be able to see the young monkeys diving from the top of the tree. Here is a video on YouTube. At that time, I had no luck and all of the monkeys were inactive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq7oLNqXCwI
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