Trip to Jigokudani Park: Monkeying Around Nagano

After New Years, I thought it would be a fun idea to go to Nagano and visit the Jigokudani Park. For those who don't know, Jigokudani Park is park up in the mountains where you can visit and see snow monkeys hanging out and even relaxing in a man-made hot spring. The monkeys are generally pretty relaxed around people and you can get up fairly close to them and takes photos.

Me riding the Shinkansen!

If you want to see the snow monkeys, I suggest you plan to go around December - January when it cold and snowy and the monkeys are most likely to come down for a dip in the hot spring. You will also want to make your hotel reservations ahead of time. I made my reservations in December and just barely caught the last of the cheapest rooms.  I booked through Hotel.com at Chisun Grand Nagano and highly recommend it. While the rooms themselves were pretty basic and not fancy at all, they were clean, relatively cheap (about 5000~6500 yen for a two person double bed), had all the basics you would find in any other hotel (towels, shampoo, body wash, etc) and had staff at the service desk who could speak excellent English. Also, the hotel was located close to some restaurants (and some pizza place, I think Pizza Hut - anyway it was delicious), several convenience stores and also about 5-7 minutes away from Nagano Station. There is also a temple and many 温泉 (hot spring) located within Nagano. If you have the time, it is worth checking them out.
  
From our hotel room, we were able to quickly get to the train station and onto the NagaDen Bus which took us on an 1 -1 1/2 hr long drive toward the park. NagaDen bus is the easiest and probably the cheapest way to get to Jigokudani Park. The stop is located outside the station on the ground floor. There will most likely be a sign that says "Monkey Park" as well as a bunch of foreigners waiting in line, so it shouldn't be too hard to locate. The bus costs about 1400 yen but basically takes you right to the trail. Here are some sights that may be helpful in finding the NagaDen bus: Go!Nagano and Nagano Bus Schedule - be warned, the schedule is in Japanese. However, the front desk at the hotel will have no problem helping you catch the right bus/trains to the park. 

From the trail it was about a 40 minutes walk through snow and rocks until we reached the actual area where the monkeys were. The walk was not terribly difficult, but with snow and ice, it made for a somewhat perilous hike. I recommend bring snow shoes, but if you don't have any, at least bring your most sturdy boots and several pairs of socks. Also make sure to being a nice, warm jacket as the trees occasionally like to drop a load of snow on your head.

Overall the experience was awesome and totally worth the $200+ dollars I spent on the whole venture (riding the Shinkansen was the priciest - about $85 one way to Nagano from Tsukuba! Ouch!) Make sure to take lots a photos of the monkeys; but please, please be respectful of the monkeys. Don't get too close, touch them (they will bite), glare at them or try to feed them.

Here is the Schedule for the Monkey Park (based off their website):

        ■ Summer season (generally between April - October)
             8:30-17:00
        ■ Winter season (generally between November - March)
             9:00-16:00

 Admission for adults is 500 yen; or 420 yen for a group of 20 or more people.

Have an awesome time at Jigokudani Park!

Enjoying the world's hottest chocolate at the gift shop in the park. Seriously it was still tongue-burning hot after 20 minutes.

じゃまた

 Ashia A.