17. Pet a Monkey

Completed: 05/22/2013

 Feeding the monkeys pieces of apple

 

Monkeys have always been my favorite animal. The first stuffed doll I remember having in my possession was a monkey that my sister won for me from a crane game. I affectionately called it Ninki (which I think was my way of trying to say "monkey" at that small age). I honestly don't remember much about the monkey except for two things. One, it has dark fur. Two, its limbs were constantly sewn and resewn because it got pretty beat up (mean boy cousins were part of the problem) because I was so attached to it and  couldn't bear to let it go. I don't know what happened to my Ninki, but I do know that I think monkeys are the cutest of animals.

It makes sense that I would want to put some monkey-related thing on my bucket list, so I did. When I first compiled the list, I didn't realize how difficult this task would actually turn out to be. In doing my research on when I could find an opportunity to pet a monkey, I read in many articles that zoos often don't allow it since human and monkey DNA is very similar, so it is easy for monkeys to catch human germs and get sick. Reading article upon article that mentioned the rarity of the opportunity to be able to pet monkeys got discouraging and made me wonder if I would ever get to realize this bucket list item.

Luckily, while I was researching for another bucket list item (traveling to Japan), I chanced upon a monkey park in an area we were planning to visit, where you would be able to feed some monkeys. Entrance to the Iwatayama Monkey Park is 550 yen (~$5.50) and sits at the top of a mountainside in Arashiyama, Kyoto. After a 20-30 minute lung-busting (okay, that's an exaggeration, but it's uphill so definitely works your lungs) hike to the summit, you will reach this park. There is an outdoor area where you can roam around, watching the monkeys hanging out (mostly lazing around or grooming each other). There is also a shelter area that you can enter to a) cool yourself off and rest (the lady who was in there pointed an A/C vent at us when we arrived), b) buy refreshments or souvenirs, or c) buy some snack foods for 100 yen (~$1.00) to feed to the monkeys.

Stacy feeding the monkey. Looks like she's about to play thumb war with it.

 

Of course, my goal was the last one so I could come into close contact with the monkeys! The signs posted around the windows instruct you to leave the food on the windowsill and then to allow the monkey to pick up the food on their own accord, but I (like everyone else, I'm pretty sure) held the food in my hand and had the monkey reach its hand inside to grab the food.

Since my sister and I were there first thing in the morning, we had the whole room to ourselves. And since we were the only one with food, we were able to give pieces of cut apple to about 5 different monkeys, including a mama monkey carrying her young (baby monkey was very cute).

After feeding the monkeys, my sister and I explored the park a bit before heading down. You can supposedly see Kyoto city from up there, but it was quite hazy that day so we weren't able to make it out that clearly. Although the satisfaction of fulfilling yet another bucket list item made my morning that day, finding this cool slide on the way down was an awesome bonus. The bump in the slide was where I got some air time as my butt lifted off the slide. I scared my sister a bit with how loud a "boom" sound I made as I landed back on the slide. Ultra fun.

Wee!