Monkey spotted at major Japanese Train station.

by airlambo23 | August 20, 2008 at 02:55 pm

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Monkey spotted at major Japanese Train station.

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Back in UK it's not uncommon to see rats, mice, bats or pigeons at the station, but a monkey!

Police officers are searching for a monkey that popped up at a busy Shibuya railway station in Tokyo on Wednesday morning and fled toward Harajuku.

A security guard spotted the monkey near a ticket gate of the Tokyu Toyoko Line at Shibuya Station at around 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday. A station employee alerted police, who rushed to the scene to try to catch the monkey, but it fled from the station about two hours later.

The monkey, which is about 40 centimeters tall and is believed to be a Japanese monkey (nihonzaru), fled toward the Harajuku district, police said.

There has recently been a spate of monkey sightings in residential areas in Tokyo, including one in Koganei on Aug. 12 and another in Setagaya-ku on Monday, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Officials suspect that the same monkey is involved in all sightings.

According to Tokyu Railway, the monkey was roaming around on the stairs near the ticket gate and near the ticket vending machines before it climbed up and sat on a train departure sign hanging from the ceiling at the station.

There were no reported injuries to passengers or any train disruptions, but the area was crowded with curious bystanders.

"If it is a Japanese monkey, it may have been separated from a pack living in the Okutama region (in the suburbs of Tokyo)," said a representative of Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo.

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Uwe Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:37 on August 20th, 2008

airlambo23, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Very true!

macpanda

at 07:07 on August 21st, 2008

Waiting to Narita Express (NEX) at Shinjuku JR Station to go to Narita Airport.

It was a sad day: I must to return to Spain and left my girlfriend in Tokyo.

macpanda has contributed a photo to this story.

Jordan Yerman

at 08:51 on August 21st, 2008

OK, that's pretty awesome. Such massive infrastructure would be a mind-blowing environment in which a monkey could run amuck.

dave_italy

at 10:03 on August 21st, 2008

Shinjuku station, track number 14.
I needed to go to Harajuku and then catch there the Chiyoda line subway. I clearly remember that day because Tokyo was remarkably empty compared to other times, probably due to o-shougatsu (Japanese New Year) for which many local people get back to their hometown to visit parents.
Simply talking at cell phone, after the call was finished I took this snapshot.
Also available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_italy/2194901245/
Take a look to my Flickr space:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_italy

dave_italy has contributed a photo to this story.

isidro2007

at 11:49 on August 21st, 2008

The Enoden line train is a little, slow, charming train, with a taste of old times that runs from Kamakura train station, where the Tokyo railways arrives, to Hase and a couple of stations beyond. Hase is the place where the world famous Great Budha of Kamakura is. On the day I went there, plenty of school girls and boys where filling the train with joy and amusement. It was an unforgettable day.

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drzuco

at 13:33 on August 21st, 2008

Trains at Tokyo are literally embedded in the city. I wonder how many other animals and even people is living and using some hide place inside this massive infrastructure, one of the most complex and chaotic railways systems in the world.

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game1980

at 14:09 on August 21st, 2008

Im an Englishman in Tokyo. Im always amazed by Japanese technology. England may have invented the train, and exported it across the entire world; but Japan really know how to make them fast, efficient, punctual and beautiful! Maybe one day English trains will be built this way... But I very much doubt it.

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Tuikku

at 14:14 on August 21st, 2008

May morning in Tokyo, just arrived from Nikko and waiting to catch another train to Kyoto. Amazing train stations, so well maintained and what efficiency!

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airlambo23

at 14:29 on August 21st, 2008

My Bullet train from Tokyo to Hiroshima was cancelled. Back in the UK, you'd be buggered and be squeezed into the next train if one is lucky. However they had a replacement within 20 minutes with my reserved seat applicable on the new train! The amazing thing is, the train arrived in Hiroshima as scheduled.