I am about five weeks behind on blogging, but I’m choosing to view this as a good thing. It means I’ve been really, really busy with both work and travel. Travel is the goal and work makes it possible, so those are the best priorities. Still, our two nights in Nagano feel like a very long time ago even though only a little over a month has passed.

Train to Nagano and Arrival

We took a Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo Station to Nagano. We bought the tickets from the Shinkansen office at the station the day before to ensure we got seats together on the train we wanted, but arrived pretty early to have time to shop for our ekibens, which are cute little bento boxes people buy for train journeys filled with all types of cute little morsels to make a cute little picnic on the train (I’m not being sarcastic – these are truly very cute and very little). 

My pre-research was a little confused about finding the store with the largest selection, Ekiben Matsuri, before or after the gates. It ended up being after the main ticket gates but before the Shinkansen gates. We spent a fair bit of time perusing the boxes and were happy with our choices. Chad chose a herring-themed box, I got one that looked pretty and had lots of things to try, and we got an onigiri box to share to make sure it was enough (though we would have been fine with the one box each!).

The train itself was right on time and smooth as always. When possible I like to choose a train that originates at the station we’re boarding from so we have more time to board and get settled, and less chance of being delayed. That strategy worked out perfectly for us again. After the train got moving, we enjoyed our ekibens very much and arrived in Nagano in under 2 hours.

I’d chosen a hotel across the street from the train station because that is also where the bus departs for Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park. I expected to see lots of signs and banners to direct travelers to where to buy the Snow Monkey Pass I researched, but that was not the case. Luckily there was a large tourist information center that gave us directions down to the basement where the Dentetsu trains depart, which is the company that sells the pass. There is a vending machine (cash only) that is well marked and a train attendant who can help if needed. We decided to go ahead and purchase the pass so we wouldn’t have to in the morning.

Buying the pass itself was a great decision and I’m surprised more people don’t do it because it includes round-trip transportation and entry into the snow monkey park for about 400 yen less than buying them separately and also includes two days of local public transit in Nagano. For our timing, we would have been a little better off buying it the following morning because it is activated right away and we could have put the local transit to better use on our third day in Nagano. But that wasn’t well explained and paying cash for our third day transit wasn’t a big deal.

That afternoon, we just checked into our hotel (review below) and took a long nap before dinner, because I had another middle of the night Zoom. Luckily this hotel had much better wifi than our Tokyo hotels and the donor relations training I delivered went great!

Snow Monkey Day

The next morning, we started our day with the phenomenal Asian breakfast buffet at our hotel. They have so many options on the buffet, they provide a map! We tried all sorts of Asian soups and stir fries and salads. It was a great hearty breakfast.

We went over to the bus stop about an hour before the first bus was set to depart and joined the short line. We probably could have come a bit later and still gotten on, but we wanted to be sure to be on the first bus. The bus was interesting because there is a jump seat in each row that they fold down so they can really pack people in. Being near the front of the line, we got real seats near the front on the side of the bus we wanted. The bus was completely full about 10 minutes before its departure time of 8:30 a.m. and went ahead and took off for the Snow Monkey Park. This website was useful to our research about transit times: https://www.snowmonkeyresorts.com/access/nagaden-express-bus-timetable/.

We arrived at the Snow Monkey Park bus stop at about 9:30 and started making the trek to the hot springs. By my recollection it is about 2 or 3 km until you reach the ticketed area and then another 500 meters or so. The snow was packed down so it wasn’t too slushy but there were spots that were slick. We used our hiking sticks for balance. At least a third of the people had the crampon spikey things for their shoes, which made me a little jealous. There may be places to rent those in Nagano and I wish I’d looked more into that. But I only fell once and it was near the end of our walk back, so it wasn’t too bad.

The walk itself was very pretty and we enjoyed the winter landscape. With our base layer and winter coats, we weren’t cold. I think it was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit on the February day when we went. With one bathroom stop (featuring nice disinfected and heated Japanese toilets), it took us right around the estimated 40 minutes to walk from the bus stop to the ticket gate. At the gate, our Snow Monkey Pass allowed us to skip the line of people buying tickets and go right into the park, which we appreciated. Seriously, it is hard to understand why more people didn’t buy the pass. 

We arrived at the hot spring and though we were at the head of the group from our bus, there was already a crowd gathered of people who must have driven themselves or stayed in the hotels close to the park. But it wasn’t hard to find good spots to see the monkeys bathing and take lots and lots of photos. The experience was just as cool and magical as we’d imagined and well worth the trouble of a trip to Nagano and navigating the buses and trains and cold weather.

We spent about an hour with the monkeys, watching them in the onsen and playing in other places nearby, and then walked back down the trail back to the bus stop. It was around 11:30 and the next bus would be at 12:45 but there was also the option to take a local bus at 12:10 to the Yudanaka train station and take the train back to Nagano from there. The Monkey Pass covered this option too so we decided to give it a try even though the connection time would be really tight. The woman at the information office was really helpful with advice about sitting at the front of the bus and how we’d navigate the very small station. It worked out perfectly and we made the short connection with no trouble. Plus we really like riding on trains (I say writing this from a train in Vietnam, but more on that in a future post).

Other Nagano Highlights

Nagano is known for soba (buckwheat noodles), so we went to a well-reviewed soba restaurant called Sousaku 28 our first night in Nagano and it was excellent. Soba is now our favorite Japanese noodle (sorry ramen and udon) and we’ve started seeking it out and buying it to make at home here in Vietnam when we can find it (we could in HCMC, but not in Hoi An or Da Nang). Buckwheat is very healthy and has a great texture.

We didn’t do much after our visit to the snow monkey park. If I remember correctly, we got lunch at the conbini (convenience store) and probably did another nap and/or some work time. That evening we went out for Valentine’s Day. Nagano has a beautiful temple called Zenkōji. Chad had read that it would be lit by candles at night as part of a festival but this was not the case. Still, the temple grounds were pretty and peaceful (though cold!). We found a vegetarian Izakaya (Japanese small plates, like tapas) dinner at a craft brewery near our hotel, which was fun.

The next day, we enjoyed another amazing breakfast at the hotel and then checked out mid-morning, but had them store our luggage. We went to the train station to purchase our Shinkansen tickets for the afternoon which was packed with tourists leaving, so we waited in line for a while. But it was good to get it taken care of rather than worrying about missing the next train. Then we took the city bus up to a park and the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum. Walking around the park and the museum were both enjoyable. The museum didn’t allow photos but we particularly enjoyed the gallery devoted to the work of Higashiyama Kaii. Then we walked to the temple to be able to see more of it during the day. It was definitely an impressive temple, though very similar to others we’d seen in Kyoto.

We rested at a French café (Café Le Garçon) while we waited to get enough appetite after our hearty breakfast to be able to try Nagano’s other famous food, oyaki.  This is a stuffed dumpling you buy from small vendors on the pedestrian street leading up to the temple. We tried oyaki from three different vendors and enjoyed fillings with mushroom, pumpkin, and apple. The apple was my favorite. Then it was time to pick up our luggage from the hotel and take the train back to Tokyo.

Nagano Summary

Chad called our visit to the snow monkey refuge a dream come true so this side trip was definitely worthwhile. This was the main reason we chose to start this leg in Japan (besides the good price on our roundtrip Tokyo flight) and it exceeded our high expectations. If you like monkeys like we like monkeys, a visit to Jigokudani Monkey Park with some time in Nagano is a must-do.

Nagano Tokyu REI Hotel – Great location and breakfast – This hotel is in a perfect location for our short trip to Nagano to see the snow monkeys, right across from the train station, which is also where you get on the express bus to the Monkey Park. If that is the purpose of your visit, I highly recommend the Snow Monkey Pass to save money and add flexibility. The room was larger than others we’ve had in Japan and very comfortable. Great wifi. Kind and professional staff. We were especially impressed by the breakfast buffet.