Yamanouchi Review

August 2018
The hot springs in winter are famous, but it's good to meet the little monkeys in summer because they are so cute
Facilities such as toilets are beautiful. You should avoid sandals as you walk from the parking lot.

A clever monkey was surprised to keep hands out of humans

Monkeys warm in the onsen, humans cold watching them

A unique place to observe Japanese monkeys in the wild. Note that the monkeys aren't present all year round, and that they only bathe in the onsen in winter.

From the parking lot walk about 1.6k in about 30 minutes, there will be a ticket selling point of 800 yen each. There will be a souvenir shop. Through this point, we will see the monkeys come and go. The rules of the visit are: 1. No water, food to eat. 2. Bananas are not close to monkeys. 3. Stay in the monkey mall.

lots of monkeys, not much bathing if its not very cold

A must go point with some walking under trees in the park and then enjoy monkeys around you eating, playing and soak in their own hot spring. The visitors center was clean with free drinking water, toilet and souvenirs for sale.

If it is not cold, the monkey is not in the hot spring.

This has been a bucket list item for me for so long. Finally I got to see them. It even snowed while we were there.

Loving the snow monkeys! They are just so playful and naughty. :)

Even though we have to walk along the path for at least 2km, it is very satisfying and worth seeing the habitat of the monkeys bathing in the hot spring, especially in the winter.
Don't get too close to the apes when you take Photo Photos, worry that the monkeys will get scared and act unwanted

There were monkeys living in the valley, a space where humans and animals can coexist, but there was also the sadness of looking at domesticated animals.

The monkeys flock to the hot springs in winter. The final visiting area is small but monkeys don't mind coming close to respectful visitors. Don't feed the monkeys anything and be ready for a 2km hike on a snowy trail from the last bus/parking area.

Must visit place in nagano. Just an hour from nagano city by bus

We went to the park in late Feb, it was unfortunately too warm for the monkeys to be sitting in the onsen but was still fantastic to see!

If you have the chance to go just do it, monkeys are lovely! You have to walk 40 minutes before getting the park but it worth it!

You can see the monkeys soaking in the hot springs in the cold weather, and the breeders are feeding. You need to buy a ticket to enter.

Lovely walk and the monkeys are fab. Well worth a visit

Very beautiful place. You have to walk for a couple of km in a forest with incredible trees until you reach the onsen where a lot of monkey are in the hot water to relax!!! Nice to come

Go early...like when it opens. Gets crowded and annoying with some bad tourists. Won't name names. Nice coffee / beer place called The Farmhouse nearby.

This place is cool to visit any time of year. Highly recommend staying at Shimaya Hotel/Ryokan if you're coming for the Snow Monkeys. Lots of onsens in the town. If you can squeeze an extra day into the area, do it. Easily walkable little town. If you want to save a day on your Rail Pass, you can get here cheap on a Willer Express bus from Tokyo also, then activate your Pass after seeing the Monkeys.

Highly recommended. A good 20min walk from the carpark and then great area to view the monkeys, on the day we saw 50-100.

Nice spot to watch the Monnkeys. 1,8 km from the car park, some way steep up the hill

This place is hands down totally amazing. The snow monkeys come right up to you like you belong there. Most tourists are very respectful of this. Thanks to all the folks that brought in selfie sticks and screwed the rest of us out of using telescopic poles for 360 action cameras.... selfish fools.

Wild monkey entering the only hot spring in the world.
Foreigners increase at once when you come here. It is a place that is attractive all over the world.
It was nice to actually go there.

A highlight of our trip in Japan!
We arrived there around 10am however at the time no monkey arrived to the park, they came around 1pm and we were lucky enough to see them.
There was many of them next to the water or even running next to us.
I would advise to follow their Facebook page and their live camera to check when the monkeys arrive.
The trails to go the park is not too steep. Only at the end you will have to climb some stairs to get them.
It was great!

Cold and a bit of a walk, but it passes quickly. There is a nice little cafe across the small bridge that serves pretty good soba and nice cold beer. Makes the walk down a bit easier

We drove 250 km from Kanazawa to Jigokudani Yaen-Koen, brave the cold to see Japanese snow monkeys bathing in onsen. Was it worth it? Yes! We drove through scenic coastal and mountain routes and enjoyed 2 great night stay at the pretty onsen town of Yudanaka. The monkeys just went about their business, ignoring us. They are wild but they were so comfortable with us that we could take pictures of them up close.

Be careful not to lean on the railing because it is the road of the monkey, I was stepped on by the monkey today ^_^

1000 yen for the entrance.
The road getting to the place can be very slippery and honestly a bit scary. They put a rope on the way to climb the stairs. It really depends in the weather. Beside that, the place is very beautiful, there are a lot of monkeys walking between people and are quite funny. I do recommend the trip.
Be cautious that there is only a bus per hour going to Nagano station.
Between the Monkey park and the bus station expect to walk 30 minutes.
If you have luggages, there is a place on the way where you can leave them for 500 yen.

Cutest monkeys on earth! Made the 1.6km hike all worth it

Good communication via bus or train from Nagano., 1h and plenty of time for a daytrip. Go there in the spring

A wonderful attraction. The 30 minute walk from the local bus stop is particularly scenic. The macaques are very comfortable around people so there are plenty of oppurtunities to get close for photographs. As an aside, the macaques only enter the onsen when it is particularly cold, so don't expect photographs of them in the water unless it's especially bitter!

I love this place. It's far better than I thought. The monkeys are more than I expected. They are so cute in the snow!

There is a world I saw on TV and the internet.
It wasn't cold yet and I hadn't taken a bath, but it was an intriguing place to see Japanese monkeys up close.

Excellent, pure magic. I recommend doing it on public transport. It is not worth hiring a tour

Monkey who entered hot spring in snow in winter was good.

There is a 1 day-2 day park ticket + train/bus ride to the park combo package of some sort. Do it. It's worth it. I regret not doing more research on getting to this place but good thing I had enough cash. Once you took all of the trains and buses in the world to get close to the park, you still need to walk about 30min to get to the actual park.The scenery getting there makes it all worth it. It's so untouched and beautiful. The monkey park itself is not big and they don't guarantee sighting of the monkeys. I was lucky how many of them were hanging out on the day I went. Plenty of them chilling in the onsen and no you cannot jump in with them. There's a park ranger/rep person there ready to blow whistle if you're getting too close.

Special experience! Driving road is narrow ... be alert

Not as beautiful as the PR photos , quite ordinary . Monkey will not soak in osen, just for drinking.

Bucket list in Nagano is checked Just 1 hour bus ride from Nagano station. It s uphill going to the place and you really need a good hiking shoes as it could get slippery on winter. As you reach near the place the whole place opens up with a wide beautiful scenery of mountain and river. The snow monkey s pool is located all the way to the end and you ll have the best time once you see them in the hot spring bath. Just make sure you don t bring any plastic because they could get attracted to that. The good thing is there is a guard keeping an eye for anything that could happen for the safety of the tourists.

Man-made but still fun. Had a great time and could have stayed all day. Monkeys are not phased by people at all.

The temperature was so high that the monkeys weren't in the hot spring, but it was fun watching the baby monkeys

It is very suitable to arrange a trip in Nagano, it is good to spend half a day

Nice place that is reached walking approximately 2km. We visited in summer and the monkeys were out of the pool due to the heat. Advisable to visit in winter

These guys are amazing to watch, they have no care for humans and will do as they please. Caution the path up can be extremely slippery so bring good walking shoes.

You can see monkeys from a surprisingly close distance, and they are used to it.

You're probably better off going in late fall/early winter than in January like me (seriously the roads on the way to the park were terrifying and the snow was so much heavier than anywhere else I'd been in Japan), but the park is still a great oppourtunity for once in a lifetime photos and unique souveniers.

Very long walk to the thermal ponds where the monkeys are supposed to bath. Path was muddy but snow about so expected. Anybody with bad legs will have worse by the time you reach destination. Plenty of monkeys about but unfortunately for us only two were bathing. Not as exciting as expected but now off my bucket list

The park was really fun, the monkeys were amazing to see. It was really busy with people and the walk up to the park was a bit precarious but worth it

I took the shinkansen from Tokyo and then bought the snow monkey park pass and went on the express bus from Nagano station for this day trip. Total ommute time was around 2 hours.
Tip: WEAR SHOES WITH A GOOD GRIP, waterproof... And bring layers to stay warm. Eat before going so you can stay there for the longest time without going hungry. No food is allowed inside the park.

Fun day out. Beautiful walk and surrounding forest. Monkeys are cute and come up close

I will walk about 20 minutes one way from the parking lot, it is not so difficult because there was no snow due to the warm winter, but it is better to stop if you are old and have lameness
Just when I got there, there were a lot of monkeys
Of the monkeys playing with parents and friends, of monkeys beyond imagination
Kazuani! If it is warm in the warm winter, the monkey will not enter the hot spring, so it was quite warm on that day so I could not see the monkey's bathing scene.
I enjoyed it enough

Highly worthwhile and enjoyable side trip from Tokyo. It is simply amazing to see all snow monkeys in the main Park area. You will see them running around, playing, or sitting around main hot spring (onsen). Sadly none were sitting in the More

Lot of people, small space
Come early in the morning is suggested

Lovely monkeys!!!!!!! July, monkeys do not jump into onsen but drink the water in the pool. Cute :)

Need to walk for an hour to go there. Beautiful place.

Great place to visit! The hike is amazing: almost 20 mins on a leveled path in the middle of a snowy forest. The monkey park itself is at the end of this hike and is not so big, so less than 1 hour there is enough.
Absolutely recommended.

Precautions:
* Getting up to Jigokudani park entrance is quite tricky so time the busses and trains carefully.
* The hike can get slippery with ice, so be careful. Special equipment (jackets, boots, hooks for boots, etc) can be rented at the entrance of the hiking path. If you didn t bring snow footwear, maybe is worth considering renting something.
* Do not bring food in plastic bags!!! Not even other things that you carry in plastic bags! The monkeys know they can have food and the bigger monkeys are brave enough to steal the bags, break them open and eat whatever is inside. It is prohibited to feed the monkeys. That being said, if you carry a small snack inside your backpack, that is fine (I brought sandwiches and chocolate that came in handy after the long hike on the cold weather).

A real treat to visit a unique place where you can observe animals in their natural habitat!

Good park even if it is a bit small. Gets very crowded.

Great park. Not as big as I expected, there was only one onsen the monkies were bathing in, but it was a great experience. Definitely worth going

A lot of people, we are more in a zoo than in a natural park

There are monkeys and hot springs. I think the entry price is a little too high.

The monkeys were ok, but the area is really getting old. It is not worth the money and effort to get there. Cables and hoses hang everywhere. For the money, the whole thing could have been made a bit more natural.

Although it was summer, I was swimming a monkey (laughs)
A dangerous child seems to pick up a monkey's poop

We decided to go to Jigokudani Monkey Park after we booked Yuzunaka Ryokan at Yudanaka Onsen. I checked out the inn at 10 am with the intention of getting on a bus at 10:38 in the morning from the station of Nagaden, walked to the station, left a suitcase at Infooffice in front of the station, and rented snow boots. (The first luggage is 500 yen, the second is 300 yen, and the snow boots are 500 yen per pair. Luggage pickup and boots return is 5:30 minutes). There is also a coin locker in front of the station, but the 500 yen coin locker was smaller than the usual one, so it was more convenient to leave a suitcase and keep it at Infooffice. There was a little time until 10:38 minutes, so I decided to go by taxi from the station in the end (about 2,000 yen by taxi for about 10 minutes). After getting off the taxi, walking on the mountain path is about 30 minutes and there is an entrance to the garden and pay 800 yen per person to enter the garden.The garden is narrower than I thought and it does not take 30 minutes to go all around, but the monkey When I saw it, it took about an hour. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the monkey bathing scene on the day we visited, but it was impressive because the wild monkeys were moving around as soon as they walked. If you were coming to Jigokudani Monkey Park, it may have been unsatisfactory in February of this year because there was little snow and you could not see the monkey bathing, but if you came to Yudanaka Onsen, I was lucky to meet. On the way back, I missed the bus at 12:08 and arrived at 12:28? I went back to Yudanaka station by bus of 2, and I was going to go to Nagano by 2:02 minute express, but I arrived early so I stopped at 1:14 minutes (Shinshu Nagano once transfer) arrived at Nagano 2:21 minutes, Shinkansen I was able to get to Tokyo just after 4 o'clock.

You can see Japanese monkeys at close range. I pay attention to shoes as I walk a bit to the park and I freeze in winter.
A lot of people from foreign countries were coming. Surely this seems to be uke.

Amazing cool hiking track, of course lovely monkeys bathing in the pool.

A lot of monkeys when you visit the New Year! Because you are used to people, you can touch at close range. There is a hot spring! Cute! It was good to go. However, it is difficult for infants to walk for 1 hour on mountain trails. For adults and women who are not healthy, we strongly recommend renting trekking shoes at the entrance. It's short but there are steep steps!

As shoes tend to get muddy on the promenade, it may be better not to wear beautiful shoes ... (lol)

Spectacular place ... Exceptional ... The space of the monkeys and the walk very good ...

Picked a sunny day to visit! Guide explained that it wasn't cold enough for monkeys to bath in hot spring. Beautiful walk, very refreshing.

While there are monkeys grooming each other and monkeys far away from their mother monkey, you can see how they are playing with child monkeys alone, and you can observe the various facial expressions of the monkeys . However, since it will be quite cold in the winter, I think that it is better to take measures against cold weather. As the ryokan's owner taught me that the Shibuseri Ryokan Association was on a minibus operated only for the winter season, the walking distance from the parking lot was reduced by half. It is like a reservation system by telephone with 1 vehicle and 9 passengers on the day.

Lots of monkeys, which aren't afraid of people at all and will run right past you. Not much else to do besides take pictures of monkeys. Be careful on the walk up the mountain, it can be super slippery! There are crampons you can rent or buy at the bottom which might be worthwhile.

Great place to get up close to the snow monkeys in a natural setting. Short hike to the park with an onsen and restaurant near the top.

One of my favorite experience during my visit to Japan. Go on a day when it's really cold as more monkeys will be bathing. They are completely used to humans and don't mind the voyeurs at all! Watching the babies bathe, swim and play was so entertaining. To get there, it's about a 1-1.5 mile hike on very snowy terrain, not very challenging at all, although I would recommend renting or bringing snow boots (800 yen). Just take your time and rest as needed to look out on the gorgeous landscape!

A unique, magical place that deserves a visit. Walk an hour to access a beautiful wooded path.