Please do not feed the monkey running wild around Tokyo, authorities ask

Casey Baseel

11/2/2021


Primate seen in two of Tokyo’s prime sightseeing wards.

Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward is one of the most interesting and colorful parts of the city. Filled with shops, parks, restaurants, theaters, and museums, there’s always something interesting to see in Shibuya.

And on Tuesday that included a monkey running around the streets.

▼ As a bonus, this monkey video is also a cat video!

   

The primate was first spotted in the morning near a preschool in Shibuya’s Tomigaya neighborhood, a few blocks south of the Yoyogi-Hachiman train station. While this part of the ward isn’t as urbanized as the area around Shibuya Station and its famed scramble intersection, it’s actually even closer to the geographical center of downtown, and farther away from any of the forested mountains where wild monkeys typically make their homes in Japan.

▼ Shibuya’s Tomigaya

As for what the animal was up to, it seemed to be primarily interested in ordinary monkey business, as various witnesses observed it climbing around on power lines and scampering up building exteriors, occasionally munching on fruits or berries it discovered, grooming itself, and lounging about and yawning.

Later in the day, the monkey had apparently had its fill of Toigaya and decided to check out the rest of what Tokyo has to offer, moving first to the Yoyogi neighborhood (also in Shibuya Ward) before making its way farther north to Shinjuku Ward’s Nishi Shinjuku district, periodically with ward employees attempting to capture it and locals, both on-site and online, enjoying the show and leaving comments such as:

“Dude, that monkey sounds like it’s really enjoying its day out in Tokyo!”
“Is it following a sightseeing course?”
“Has it been living in the city this whole time? If so, it had better be paying its resident taxes.”
“Well, there is a section of Shibuya that’s called Sarugakucho” [which means “Monkey Fun Town”].
“That’s one tough cat that it can just sleep like that with a monkey creeping up on it.”

As of Tuesday evening, the monkey has yet to be caught, and while no injuries have been reported, officials are asking residents to be cautious and to refrain from offering the animal snacks or other food should they encounter it. With SoraNews24 headquarters being located in Shinjuku, though, we will, of course, offer it an interview should it choose to come by the office.

Source: NHK News Web via Hachima Kiko, Twitter/@nhk_news (1, 2)
Top image: Pakutaso