I never had problem staying home even before the pandemic, working on my own stuff, gaming and doing my own thing. But the lockdown did get to Renu & me when it was mandated and we couldn’t no longer have gatherings, which I do like occasionally.. so taking this trip to Nagano in Jigokudani Yaen Kōen was just so refreshing, even though it was summer and off season.
The valley famous for its natural hot springs. Japan is absolutely beautiful, the trip to Nagaon was tiring during to traffic but the visual treat we had made it up, and then to top it all up we had a beautiful place to stay for the night with an ōnsen that really took away the tiring year of lockdown.
The off season kind of worked in our favour as there were hardly any tourist save a few like us, so we didn’t really encounter any crowd or cluster of people to watch out for.
Ohh!! forgot to mention the individuals in the pictures, the Japanese Macaque, what an amazing animal to observe - they weren’t taking a dip in the water like we see in few famous pictures, cause it was quite hot in the valley. When lockdown was announced, Renu & I had got super hooked to the subject of genetics and evolution. When observing these animals even though we aren’t really related to them, it’s still hard not to see many similarities in their behaviour. The way they interact with each other felt ‘almost’ human. Now it could be my brain finding patterns where it doesn’t exist, however, one can wonder.
That brings me to an absolutely amazing group of people doing some stunning research on these subjects, the Leakey Foundation. It’s worth paying them a visit and also if you are interested, then I highly recommend the Origins Podcast.