Monkeying Around Umegashima Onsen

Throughout the course of the lockdown, I found that I still wanted to go out every once and a while and see something new. Near the end of April, towards the end of cherry blossom season, I got a COVID-free friend and took my car out into the mountains. For some bizarre reason, I was hoping that the hot springs would be open (Spoiler: it wasn't), but I still ended up finding something that made this entire 1 hour trip worth it.

Deep in the Southern Japanese Alps near the Shizuoka-Yamanashi prefecture border sits Umegashima Onsen.

A quiet little mountain town with some beautiful scenery, it also has some fantastic hot springs (that I definitely will try visiting next time.)  Fortunately, if you don't have a car, you can also take a bus from Shizuoka station (approximately 1.5 hours).

The best part of the trip, however, wasn't the views, but rather the wildlife. Sitting on a cherry blossom tree, enjoying some peace from the lack of people and traffic, was a monkey just minding their own business, eating some of those tasty leaves over the road.

It turned out there were two more of them hanging further back, but due to the quality of my camera and the distance, any effort to take a picture was futile.

Seeing these monkeys, it was a timely reminder that it is okay to just hang out without constantly panicking about whether or not I will contract the virus by going outside.

I look forward to actually being able to go into the hot springs, though...