Relax in a hot spring and visit Jigokudani Monkey Park to meet the monkeys

Walk through the forest to reach Jigokudani Monkey Park

There are two ways to reach Jigokudani Monkey Park. You can drive through Shibu Onsen until the paid parking lot of Jigokudani and then continue on foot for about 15 minutes till the park. However, the road is closed for the winter period between December and March.

The other way is to park the car at Kanbayashi Onsen’s free parking lot and take the walking trail. In the winter that is the main route to the park. It takes about 30 minutes one way, but the trail is well maintained and you can have a pleasant walk in the forest. You will likely encounter monkeys on the trail as well. If you use public transportation, the route from Kanbayashi Onsen is your only option.

An open air bath covered in steam and monkeys relaxing inside

There is a special open air hot spring bath in the park made for the monkeys. It is located in the ravine, a pleasant location also for bathing humans, and the water temperature is 41 degrees in the winter.

The monkeys coming here are wild. During the day they descend from the mountains, dip in the hot spring, get fed and have a rest.

Their number varies by the season: in hot summer days few of them can be found in the bath, but when it gets cold during autumn and winter many monkeys come and that is the best season to view them. However, they come and go even within the same day. When I visited the park, lots of monkeys were dipping in the bath surrounded by steam.

The view of the bathing monkeys is quite pleasant

Watching the monkeys dipping in the hot water brings you quite a pleasant feeling. Some rest with closed eyes, others groom each other and spend a leisurely time. Of course, sometimes they might raise their voices and start a fight too.

Contrary to zoos, there are no fences so you can watch the monkeys from very close. But don’t stare in their eyes (they might find this hostile) and don’t touch them, as written on the signs.

Their adorable expressions and behavior are very relaxing

The adult monkeys rest calmly in the water, but the younger ones move around and look like they are playing in the bath.

There are many baby monkeys whose adorable expressions and behavior make you feel relaxed from just observing them. Monkeys often act similarly to humans so you will not get bored of watching them.

You can do sight-seeing around the hot spring fountains or you can enter a hot spring yourself

Next to the monkey park is “Shibu Jigokudani Hot Spring Fountain”, designated as a natural monument that you can visit. Boiling water gushes out loudly from the earth – a stream of an up to 20-meter height can be seen during the highest periods of this fountain. On the opposite side across the river is the only Japanese ryokan inn in Jigokudani “Korakukan”. There is an open air bath with a view to the river which you can use as a guest of the inn or as a day trip hot spring.

It feels great to enter a hot spring yourself and warm up after you’ve watched the monkeys do the same. (Day trip hot spring can be used from 12:00 till 15:00) If you’re lucky monkeys will come to the inn’s open air bath too and you might dip in the water together with them.

Jigokudani Monkey Park is close to the famous hot springs towns of Shibu and Yudanaka, so I recommend you visit this place for the rare views it provides. In the winter the snow-covered monkeys dipping in the hot water are often called “Snow Monkeys”, attracting many foreign tourists to this place which you must visit if you take a winter trip to Nagano.