{"id":35040,"date":"2023-12-23T22:29:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T14:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=35040"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T03:27:28","slug":"day-16-nagano-jigokudani-snow-monkey-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2023\/12\/23\/day-16-nagano-jigokudani-snow-monkey-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 16 @ Nagano – Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

So many people have already made this trip to see the snow monkeys at Jigokudani Monkey Park that it’s hard to really add much further value in any blog post about our visit. But perhaps I’ll angle my post here more towards the experience, the trek up, and also things to pay attention to.<\/p>\n

The most important bit is this: the snow monkey park is located inside the much larger Joshinetsu-Kogen National Park in the northern part of Nagano. From what we read, this park is covered in snow for almost a third of every year, and the Japanese monkeys \u2014 macaques<\/a> \u2014 live in the mountainous area and, during the winter season, descend to this one spot to bathe in the hot springs. What this basically means for visitors is that in order to get into this monkey ‘onsen’ area, you’d need to walk in \u2014 all 1.6 km in, and 1.6 km back. The distance itself isn’t the issue, nor its elevation: aside from a small flight of steps at the entrance into the snow monkey park, and another towards the monkey onsen pool, there are just the gentlest of slopes at several parts of the path. Rather, it is that in winter, the entire length of the 1.6 km path itself is muddy and\/or slippery<\/strong>. You’d need to ensure you have proper footwear with good grip, and don’t wear pants that reach past your ankles, as they’d be coated with mud by the time you leave!<\/p>\n

The monkeys themselves are also very tame and docile, and they will generally ignore and not engage humans. Many will basically scoot past you as they scurry from the pool to the steep hill just opposite it. There is numerous signage reminding visitors that they must not touch the monkeys, as they can become aggressive. Nor should you engage in staring contests with them, as they might likewise feel threatened.<\/p>\n

Our guide compared the snow monkeys here to the other world-famous monkey resort \u2014 the Bali Monkey Park, of course \u2014 and that the Balinese monkeys are reportedly extremely aggressive. We couldn’t agree more: we’ve been there twice now, and the monkeys, cute as they are, do not fear humans and are known to descend on them to snatch food! So if you have a fear of getting assaulted by these primates because of prior experiences at the Bali Monkey Sanctuary, fear not: the residents of Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park will come very near you, but they will not interact with you.<\/p>\n

The actual monkey gathering and pool area isn’t very big, so if you’re bringing ILCs to take pictures, something that has constant aperture and variable zoom \u2014 e.g. 70\u2013200mm f\/2.8 \u2014 would be perfect. A fixed focal prime like a 50mm or 75mm would work well too. Just remember that if you’re bringing fixed focals, you’d need to move a lot with your feet to get the right framing. The monkeys can move fast, and the area can also get crowded!<\/p>\n

Talking about crowds: we reached the pool area at about 3PM, and there were quite a number of visitors there at this time. The visitors were for the most part very well-behaved, and we saw none of the animal baiting for vanity selfies routine nor pushing and shoving seen at other places, e.g. at the Otaru Aquarium in Hokkaido during our 2019 visit<\/a>. This was perhaps also in part because there are a number of park rangers around to make sure people behave!<\/p>\n

Next, the park closes at 4PM. If you’re visiting in winter, staying until you’re forced out at closing time and intending to take a nice slow and romantic walk back to the exit \u2014 instead of a brisk 30-minute dash where you run for the exit \u2014 consider bringing some light illumination. The trail does not look lit at night, and coupled with it being slippery, you really would not want to fall! The trail cuts through very steep terrain that goes quite a distance down.<\/p>\n

Finally, pictures. It was pretty tough taking pictures of the monkeys in the hot spring. Not because the place was crowded \u2014 the Sony A6600 and 18\u2013135mm travel lens would normally have been more than up to the task. Rather, the steam vapours from the hot springs meant that the lens had difficulty finding the correct focus points.<\/p>\n

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Tickets into the Jigokudani Yaen Koen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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No kidding!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Though it’s 1.6 km, the walk presents some really stunning scenery. Do note the width of the path: it can narrow to about 1.8 meters across. There are no guard railings, and if you slip and fall towards the left, it’s a fast tumble downhill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This was about 2:30PM and the sky was a glorious blue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lots of signage to inform you of the flora and animal life in the park, and also encourage you on how much further you have to walk! This is just before the midway point with 0.9 km more to go.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The trail can be muddy and\/or slippery. The missus lost her balance twice and fell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Warning signs about treating the park’s local residents and area with respect.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Nearing the entrance into the area where the monkeys gather.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There were frequent snow showers along the trail, so you’d really want your hoods to be up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Many spots to take some truly stunning pictures of the valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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That’s a wrap for Day 16. We’d be leaving Matsumoto tomorrow morning and heading back to Tokyo to spend our last night in Japan. To be continued!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So many people have already made this trip to see the snow monkeys at Jigokudani Monkey Park that it’s hard to really add much further value in any blog post about our visit. But perhaps I’ll angle my post here<\/p>\n

Read More Day 16 @ Nagano – Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-35040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-chubu-kanto-japan-2023","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/blog-2023-japan-day-16-A6_02238.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35040"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38284,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35040\/revisions\/38284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}