Arashiyama Monkey Park, Wild Monkeys in Kyoto

Arashiyama is one of the most beautiful places in Kyoto. Not to mention, it is full of famous temples such as Tenryu-ji and Daikaku-ji. However, if you aren’t into history, there is another popular place anyone can visit: Arashiyama Monkey Park. Though this spot has nothing to do with history, it quickly gained popularity these days.

Arashiyama Monkey Park

Arashiyama Monkey Park might not be that popular with Japanese people, but it is very popular for foreign visitors. If you are interested in heading over, make sure to wear decent shoes.

The park is a short hike (about 160m) up a hill. It only takes 20 minutes to the top, but it can be boiling hot in the summer.

As you can see, Monkey Park is located on the top of the mountain

The origins of the monkey park date back to the 1950s when a scientist from Kyoto University fed the monkeys around here for research purposes. Since then, the monkeys learned that they could get free food here and started staying here. Though this place is not fenced at all, it seems those monkeys never run away.

Once you reach the top of the mountain, there are as many as 100 monkeys happily walking around. They get used to people but they are half wild, which means you are not allowed to touch those monkeys. Also, looking at monkeys directly in their eyes is not good either because that may scare them out.

On the top of the hill is a little hut where you can feed the monkeys for 100 yen.

There are two kinds of monkeys in Japan: Hondo macaques and Yakushima macaque. In Arashiyama Monkey Park, only Hondo macaques exist.

While the Hondo macaque is commonly seen on the main island of Japan, the Yakushima macaque can be seen only on Yakushima island. It is hard to see the difference between those two, and to us, it looks almost the same.