Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park: The trek!

Today we are on a private tour to explore the mountainsides around Nagano with two key locations in mind: the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park, and Togakushi Shrine.

Our tour guide and driver today is Dai, and we have a very comfy van to get around in. Dai has lots of great knowledge about the area, and will come along with us to take snaps for us and give us tips and information about the places we are visiting. He is also organising our lunch based on our preference of "must have meat!" I will break down each section of trip for our photos as one part, and Dai's photos as another part, because we got so many amazing snaps!

We have also completely lucked in weather wise. Central Japan has had an unexpected heat wave during their winter, and Nagano is also impacted. Which means that, instead of doing this park at anywhere between -5 degrees and 2 degrees like we anticipated, we are sitting around 10 degrees, which means only two layers of tops for me! The shrine in the afternoon is even better, reaching a whopping max of 15 degrees! Yet the snow still well and truly stands! Sure, it's melted in spots, but who cares! It's snow haha!

Once we arrived at the entrance, it was a 1.6km trek to the actual monkey park. Michael bought us crampons to attach to our boots before we got to Japan, and boy oh boy was this a smart move! People were slipping, it was wet, it was muddy, and we didn't have to stress at all because we were cramping onto the ground and moving with ease!

However... People suck at etiquette. We are on slim pathways that have inches of snow with people going in and out of the area, and you have couples hand holding and blocking up the road, idiots on phone calls in the centre walking in zig zags, or groups who can't get any handle on single file walking systems. It's like cars... Get out of the right hand lane, you slow, spatially unaware bozo! Pffft!

Apart from that, the walk to the park itself was gorgeous. Especially with the light peppering of snow. I haven't been in the snow since I was very young so this was super exciting for me to see the snow! And paired with the green trees... So nice! Plus, we could see the onsen and ryoken that are here as well, and even a geyser going full pelt! Plus, I got to wear my beanie that I got from Petite Mura back in Kichijochi in Tokyo and my big coat from the Shimokitazawa Flea Market, so I looked extra cute and ready to spot the monkeys!Read more