So there we were enjoying the warm, sunny, autumn day... when Choco perked up her ears and whimpered a bit.
I heard the rustling too and looked over in the direction that Choco was pointing. (She is part Pointer, you know.)
"Rustle, rustle, rustle."
Squirrels in the forest? I pointed my camera with the telescopic lens towards the end of the forest. And pretty soon...
A monkey is out there rustling those trees! And before long, he plopped onto the pasture fence and walked towards us!
Nikko is famous for its monkeys, the most internationally famous set being the "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys. Wild monkeys will occasionally burst from the woods and steal tourists backpacks and bags of snacks, and I have seen monkeys on the mountain roads but there aren't any monkeys in the part of Nikko where I live.
This handsome monkey paid not the least bit of attention to us humans (and one dog) lounging near the pasture and I slowly got to my feet and tip-toed towards him. He would glance at me and I would stop with my camera pointed at him. He would look away and I would advance a few more steps.
At one point I decided not to try my luck and just concentrated on focusing the camera while the monkey enjoyed a lunch of autumn berries.
There are a lot of berries still in the woods! The monkeys don't have to go far to look.
Pretty soon another, younger monkey came to sit in a tree by the pasture and I spent awhile photographing him too.
Finally the original monkey jumped down from the fence and sauntered across the prairie.
At which point the younger monkey joined him and then a third monkey scurried out from the forest and caught up to the other two.
The monkey family of three, headed across the prairie nary giving Tetsu and Choco and me a glance. And when I turned around, delighted with my impromptu photography shoot, there was Choco locked in Tetsu's judo hold.
"I watched you sneak up on that monkey and thought if he decided to come at you I would let Choco go and chase him away!"
Can you imagine what would have happened if Choco had been set loose? The monkeys would have gotten away but Choco would have gotten lost in the wilds of Nikko.
Wild monkeys were the highlight of the day!
Ah! I have learned something today: I did not know that Japan had monkeys.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would have been afraid to approach them for photos. You are brave!
Oh, the adventures of Tanya, Tetsu and Choco.....who would have thought you'd see one monkey, let alone the whole family....wow, and made for some good photography, tooo......Hugs, Pat in IN
ReplyDeleteThese photos are stupendous! I wonder if National Geographic would like some of them? It was totally worth fighting traffic to have your outing! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSuch an adventure! Lucky you. I would not have dared to go closer. You are one brave woman!
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me???
ReplyDeleteI learned something today!! Your "good" camera is so worth the cost.
Thank you for today's lesson.
Best regards from Gail in Washington State where we just have squirrels
An adventure never possible in the US! Native turtles, bats, cats, and birds, but no monkeys :). Fun photo shoot!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed seeing the macaques when we visited Singapore this spring....so different to our walks here....they did steal food from picnicers, though, which was not good, they should be eating natural food...
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing pictures of those beautiful monkeys. You do beautiful photography1
ReplyDeleteKaren I South Jersey
We have had monkeys steal things from the kids backpacks ... but then, crows and kites do that too in broad daylight and tanuki do it at night. I am always surprised at how casual those monkeys appear, even along the road with gawking sight seers.
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