Arigato Saru #10/25

I’ve titled this image Arigato Saru because in Japanese, “arigato” means “thank you” and “saru” means “monkey”. I’d always dreamed of photographing snow monkeys (Japanese Macaques), but they aren’t easy to reach. They live in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, which is about a four hour journey from Tokyo. After several trains and a short taxi ride, we were dropped off at a trailhead. The taxi driver mimed “monkey” and pointed into the forest. There were a few forks in the icy mountain path, and the signage was in Japanese, but we eventually made it to the only place in the world where monkeys bathe in natural hot springs.