I visited Uchide Park, famous for appearing as the “park with the monkey cage” in novelist Haruki Murakami’s debut work, Hear the Wind Sing!
At the far center of the park, there is a “monkey cage.”
↑ This is the “monkey cage.”
Apparently, for about 50 years from Showa 34 (1959) to Heisei 22 (2010), Formosan macaques, squirrels, small birds, and peacocks were kept here.
On the front of the cage, there’s a gentle, kid-friendly introduction to the park.
The inside of the cage is empty now. There were no monkeys or peacocks.
But there are animals outside the cage! …Huh? Animals…?
Is this… a crab…? It’s kind of cute, but also a little scary…
The rabbit is undeniably cute!
There was also a turtle! It’s round and cute.
A little off to the side, there was another crab here too. Aren’t there kind of a lot of crabs…? Is this park really into crabs?
…Oh! Is it because of “Sarukani Gassen” (“The Monkey and the Crab”)? But wait, were there three crabs in Sarukani Gassen…???
And that was Uchide Park, where children play cheerfully under the watchful eyes of cute animals, lots of crabs, and the spirits of the animals that once lived inside the cage!
Here’s the map↓
The address is 14-4 Uchidekozuchicho, Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture.
