Mino National Park

We went to Mino national park last weekend. There was supposed to be heaps of candles and lights around the waterfall but only the waterfall was lit up. It's about a 50min hike up the mountain but follows a creek all the way so it's nice to stop and cool off with your feet in the water. Mt Mino is famous for the monkeys and red leaves in Autumn (expect lots of pictures in October and November). back in the 70's there was a monkey park there that didn't do so well, so it closed and they just let all the monkeys go. Basically i don't trust monkeys and i hate them but it was funny watching everyone get their food stolen and growled at by the psycho monkeys.

Just after dark we we sat down to have dinner and i finished quickly so i got up to take some photos of the waterfall and heard mika scream. One of the monkeys snuck up behind her and scared the crap out of her. the actually act quite viscious, getting there teeth out and spit at you when they growl or whatever it is they do. There's also lots of food stands near the waterfall selling takoyaki and karage that the monkeys often try to rob but usually cop a broom stick over the head.

Here's the waterfall lit up. Apparently it's one of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan. I'm not sure how many waterfall there are so don't know how to judge it's greatness. Maybe there's only 105, i have no idea. It was pretty boring compared to some of the ones we saw in Hokkaido a few weeks ago.

here's one of the famous monkeys. It scored a packet of chips from this bag. I was amazed how easily they opend the packet. Opened exactly like the instructions. Had lots of practice i think.

Me and Mika doing the snapshot pose thing.

me trying to be creative with the water and reflections, didn't really work but i still kind of like it. it's a small restaurant just below the waterfall.