Monkey business at the Monkey Park.

Jigokudani Yaen-Koen is home to the Japanese Macaques, also known as snow monkeys.

Jigokudani literally translates as 'hell's valley' because of the steam and boiling water that bubbles out of small crevices in the ground.

They are known as snow monkeys because they live in such a cold climate. In fact they are the northern-most dwelling primates.

There is a troop of snow monkeys in City Park, Launceston, Tasmania. Launceston’s sister city, Ikeda, Japan, gifted the city with 10 macaques. In turn, Launceston gifted Ikeda with 10 wallabies.

Primates are usually averse to entering water but the snow monkeys have learnt that soaking in the thermal springs is a good way to keep warm.

The distance from the car park to the ticket office is 1.6km. The first and last bits are very steep. The middle section, the majority, is a steady incline. Inage said it would take 30 to 45 minutes to get up there and the same to go back and that we had two hours altogether.

We returned with half an hour to spare so time for an ice cream. We had apple flavoured sorbet in a cone - it was delicious and refreshing!

Dinner tonight - buffet in our hotel in Matsumoto.Read more