I recently traveled to Japan and and went on a few hiking trails on days that I didn't have plans. One of the trails had wild mountain monkeys and I got to see a few, which was very cool.

The first was when I took a less traveled path that overlooked one of the shrines. It didn't notice me, but at the time I was unaware monkeys lived there so it was a very nice surprise.

The second was when I stopped at the main attraction of the trail, a very tall waterfall. I sat down on one of the stone benches and went through my bag to get a snack, and one of the territorial monkeys was apparently approaching me. One of the other hikers yelled for me to watch out and when I looked around, this monkey was almost within arm's reach. I stood up really quickly and it ran back to its perch, which was a small cliff (about head height) overlooking the benches. It was a lot scarier than I would have thought. I ate my salty snacks without further incident.

The third monkey was on a side path. On the way to the end of a trail, there was a small tunnel with another hiking trail that I wanted to check out. Someone was nice and left a very good hiking stick at the trail entrance, which I used once I returned to this trail. I was very glad they did, because this trail was difficult for a non-hiker. I was thirsty because of those snacks but I didn't have any water. Because the trail followed a river, I decided to drink some because it looked clean. It was a really cool experience since I live in the city and have only ever drank filtered water. Thankfully there were no complications regarding that. About 1/4 through this trail, I heard something suddenly start shifting around in the nature around me. I immediately freeze, and start looking around since I'm in a foreign country on a path that no one takes, but I can't find the source. After a few more seconds, I eventually see a monkey in the trees above me, staring at me. In my state of fear, I slowly walk backwards away from it and it resumes (?) its path through the trees. For the rest of that trail, I remained as alert as I possible could despite the exhaustion I was facing due to the difficulty of the trail.

Overall, 10/10 experience and if you found yourself in Japan, take a day or two to hike.