Soaking up the Simians
Minutes after paying our entrance fees, we were standing face to face with the most contented-looking monkey I'd ever seen. A large male, who, by his closed eyes and the relaxed expression on his face, seemed to feel secure not only with his status in the troupe, but also by being immersed in steaming-hot rotenburo (open-air hot-spring) water.

With his arms resting on the stone wall, he was an uncanny, pink-faced imitation of any human bather. I was fascinated, unnerved and unsettled. The gap between us and our simian relatives was clearly much narrower than I had ever really appreciated...