Currently, I am leading my annual cross-country Cherry Blossoms photo workshop tour, and we are in Nagano photographing Japanese macaques at the Snow Monkey Park (Jigokudani Yaen Koen).  For over 25 years, I have repeatedly visited the Snow Monkey Park with clients on my annual group photo tours such as my annual Cherry Blossom photo tour, my Essence of Autumn Japan photo tour, and my annual Hokkaido photo tour.  I visit the snow monkey park with clients as it is always a sure thing to spot and photograph wild snow monkeys.  In the park, there are roughly 300 monkeys living in three separate troops, and only the strongest troop may lay claim to the exclusive monkey hot springs.  During winter, the other monkey troops have to rely on thermal steam vents around the park on cold winter nights.  Across Japan, there are over 120,000 snow monkeys living in thousands of troops.  Annually, I spend a month or two in the backcountry spotting, filming, and photographing wild Japanese macaques who are not used to people and will quickly shy away, but remain in the area, as it is their home region.  Through the years, I have visited with dozens of troops throughout Japan, the most northerly location I’ve spotted them is in Aomori Prefecture, Japan.  In closing, I don’t recommend people going into the wild for a day or two to film the monkeys.  It could take a week to spot a troop, and usually the encounters are short, maybe 5 to 10 minutes, but I have become familiar with some monkey troops, and when camping in their home region I am able to film and photograph them for an hour or two.  Japan is a naturalist’s paradise, as it is over 75% unpopulated wilderness.