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June 8, 2005

Attacked By Monkeys!

We roadtripped around Japan a couple of years ago, and spent some time in the Nikko area, where the shrine with the three See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil monkeys live. We had stopped at Kegon Falls. It was a bitterly cold morning in late November, and after a quick trip to the base of the falls, we headed back to the car.

There was a sign in the parking lot. It had a picture of a monkey on it, and some japanese writing that was beyond my reading abilities at the time, but we conjectured that it meant "Don't Feed the Animals".

At this point, someone scoffed, "There are no monkeys in Japan!"

We piled back into the car and started driving down one of the most amazing switchback roads I've ever driven on in my life. As I rounded a corner not 15 minutes later, I saw a group of monkeys sitting along the side of the road near a scenic overlook pullout.

They looked so small and innocent as we gazed at them through the car windows. Their bright pink faces surrounded by the white-grey fur. There was even a tiny baby clinging to the fur of its mother. Somehow, we all ended up outside the car, taking pictures, and exclaiming over how cool they were.

Next thing we know, all hell breaks loose. There are monkeys in the car, tearing apart bags of carefully wrapped rice crackers and souvenirs. We're screaming at each other, trying to get one very large monkey out of the car without being bitten or attacked. He hisses menacingly and takes off up the road with a large portion of our souvenirs, including our postcards and a boxed teacup set. About 1/4 of a mile up the road, the monkey sits, opens everything, and eats anything remotely edible before discarding the rest. Shane has followed the monkey and retrieves all our not-so-tasty souvenirs.

Meanwhile, monkeys have surrounded our car. They're not so docile and sweet now. They hiss and make mock charges at the car. Some of us have safely gotten inside the car, but the rest are trying to figure out how to join them without adding extra passengers. The last thing we want is for a monkey to be stuck in the car with us - the nearest hospital has got to be quite far away and none of us speaks Japanese well.

Meanwhile, people are driving by us and slowing down to watch us in the struggle between man and ape. No one stopped, offered to help, or anything. They just stared at us as they drove by. I'm quite sure they were laughing themselves silly over the stupid American tourists. No monkeys in Japan!

After quite a bit more drama, including one of us accidently slamming the trunk door on one of the monkey's hands (he was fine, don't worry about him), we manage to get into the car. This took swinging a very large SLR camera at the monkeys while the other person tried for a door. By the time I was back in the driver's seat I was livid.

It took another 100km or so for me to calm down enough to see a bit of humor in the situation. Everyone kept looking out along the road for more monkeys, but I calmly stated that if I saw any, I had very little qualms with mowing them down with the car. At minimum, I wasn't planning to stop for further photo ops.

We discovered later that those monkeys were very problematic in the region. Residents could never open their windows, and monkeys attacked young school kids and such. There was actually a bounty for each monkey, and for a bit we dreamed of using ourselves as bait in order to fund future trips to Japan, which is quite expensive. I believe poisonous rice crackers were mentioned more than once, but you'll forgive us. We were feeling really foolish, and it reaffirmed a lesson so many people need to remember.

Respect the wildlife.
Keep your distance.
Be cautious.
Always have an exit plan.

Shane and I have been very careful and wary of animals ever since, but we see otherwise intelligent people disregard these concepts time and time again. Attacks, gorings, etc. They happen all the time. You also hear terrifying stories of people placing their children in danger for a good photo opportunity. They just don't take nature seriously.

Later I was playing a little game with the two year old in the car, asking him questions to keep him entertained as we drove towards Hakone and Mount Fuji.

What's your favorite food? Rice.
What's your favorite color? Orange.
What's your favorite animal? Anything but monkeys.

Some other interesting monkey news of late:

Learn More: Wikipedia: Japanese Macaque
Interesting Facts: BBC Facts About Japanese Macaques

The Japanese Macaques cause all sorts of trouble in Japan. Most recently there's been a monkey on the loose in Tokyo.

And then someone always figures out how to exploit things, eh? I've heard stories of thieves training monkeys to attack tourists and steal their jewelry and such. Now some guy in Japan has dressed up in Halloween costumes like a monkey to try to rob a convenience store.

A man dressed in a monkey costume threatened an employee at a convenience store in Yokkaichi, Mie, with a knife in an unsuccessful robbery attempt.

More at: Man, Dressed as Monkey, Tries to Rob Store

Posted by sorsha at June 8, 2005 8:01 PM