Jigokudani Monkey Park: Sorry, Monkeys Only

Place

Jigokudani Yaen-kōen (地獄谷野猿公苑)

Visited: December 16, 2022
Published: September 29, 2026

Japanese macaques soaking in a steaming outdoor hot spring at Jigokudani, with more monkeys on the snowy rocks behind — Steam, snow and a busy bath at Jigokudani.

It was snowing into the hot spring. A monkey sat at the edge with snowflakes settling on its head, while another worked through the fur on its back. Neither of them looked up.

A Japanese macaque with snow on its head sitting at the edge of the hot spring while another grooms its back, with bathing monkeys blurred behind — Snow on the head, a companion at the back.

At most hot springs in Japan, cameras are not welcome anywhere near the bath. At this one, visitors stand along the edge and point theirs straight at the water, and the bathers have yet to complain. The monkeys were naked, which is correct onsen etiquette. The visitors were wearing everything they owned, which was correct for the weather.

This was Jigokudani Yaen-kōen, a park for wild monkeys in the mountains of northern Nagano Prefecture, better known abroad as the Snow Monkey Park, or Jigokudani Monkey Park. It sits 850 metres up in the valley of the Yokoyu River, where snow covers the ground for about a third of the year.

Two Japanese macaques grooming in the hot spring as snow falls and steam rises from the water — The grooming continues in the water.

The park has the rules you would expect at a place full of wild animals: no feeding the monkeys, no pets. It also has one I have not seen at any other hot spring. Visitors may not get into the bath with the monkeys.

The way into Hell Valley

The last part of the journey is on foot. From the car park at Kanbayashi Onsen, a path runs about two kilometres up the valley. It takes around half an hour. In mid-December there was snow on the ground and more on the way.

Walkers on a snowy path through tall cedar trees on the way to Jigokudani — The path in, on a December morning.

Tall straight cedar trunks seen from below, with light snow on the forest floor — Looking up from the path. The monkeys come later.

Jigokudani means Hell Valley, after the steam that rises from the hot springs and the geyser along the river. The walk in was mostly cedar trees.

A granite snowman-shaped statue with a monkey face and the hot-spring symbol, carved with “Jigokudani Onsen”, under a small wooden roof with coins on its base — A stone snowman with a monkey’s face, the hot-spring symbol on its belly and “Jigokudani Onsen” carved above it. Someone had left coins on the base. I never found out what the statue was for, and could only guess at the coins.

Japanese macaques live farther north than any other monkey, and this troop spends its winters in snow. It has not always spent them in this valley. After the Second World War, logging cleared the forests higher in the mountains where the monkeys found their food. They came down, and some of them found the apple orchards downstream, around the hot-spring town of Yudanaka.

The apples in Yudanaka’s orchards became forbidden fruit. The consequences were not biblical, but they were serious. The monkeys were declared pests, and permission was given to shoot fifty of them.

The man who would become the park’s first director objected. His counter-proposal was more apples. From 1962, he and a few helpers used them to draw the troop into Jigokudani, well away from the orchards, and spent about three years winning its trust. The park opened in 1964.

A hillside of bare trees fading into falling snow above the Jigokudani valley — The hillside above the park. The monkeys often come down from the hillside during the day and return to the mountains later.

An apple in the bath

The feeding ground was close to Kōrakukan, an inn that had been taking in guests beside the valley’s hot springs since 1864, a century before the park. It had an outdoor bath.

In the winter of 1963, according to one of the earliest accounts, an apple landed in that bath and floated there. A young monkey climbed in to fetch it. So far, this was simply appetite. Then it climbed in again.

The apple was gone. The monkey went back in anyway.

Several people saw young monkeys getting into the inn’s bath that winter, and nobody can say for certain which one was first. The founder’s own account describes a two-year-old putting its fingers into the water and moving them around, then putting in one foot, then the other, and finally sinking in up to its neck. It tested the water the way people do, and then did what people do next.

The habit spread from the young upwards. Monkeys of the same age followed first, then slightly older ones, and within a year, adult females. Babies born to bathing mothers grew up bathing. Adult males who join the troop from elsewhere have never taken it up. Some customs are hard to adopt mid-career.

A young macaque with only its head above the water of the hot spring, near two adults — A young bather, with only its head above water. The custom began with the young.

A baby macaque floating on its back in the hot spring while an adult grooms it — A baby floating on its back while an adult grooms it.

Monkeys only

The inn’s bath had, of course, been built for people. In November 1967, the park gave the monkeys one of their own, separate from the inn. The reason given was hygiene. Whose hygiene, the records do not say. It is the bath they still use.

The monkeys’ hot spring at Jigokudani with more than a dozen macaques in and around the steaming water — The monkeys’ bath, with a fair share of the troop in it.

In 1970, a bathing monkey with snow on its head appeared on the cover of the American magazine LIFE. The 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano brought visitors from around the world. The monkeys have been famous ever since, which does not seem to have changed them much.

The rule about not bathing with them reads differently once you know the history. In 1963, it was a monkey that got into the humans’ bath, uninvited.

These days, it is the humans who are not allowed in.

The monkeys are not behind glass, either. They use the same paths as the visitors, and nothing stands between the two but the rules.

A young macaque walking along the path beneath a wooden rail, right beside a visitor’s white shoes — A young monkey passing a visitor’s shoes. No fences, in either direction.

Most of them stay dry

Looking back through my photographs, I noticed that a good many of the monkeys were not in the bath at all. They were grooming on the bank, sitting on the rocks with babies in their arms, or huddled together against the snow.

Bathing here is a custom, not an instinct, and not everyone keeps it. In 2018, a researcher counted around forty bathers in a troop of about 160. The world’s most famous bathing monkeys are, for the most part, monkeys who do not bathe.

Two macaques grooming among rocks and grass on the bank, away from the water — Grooming on the bank, well away from the water.

A mother macaque holding her baby on snowy rocks, with another adult beside her — A mother holding her baby on the snowy rocks. Nobody in this group was going in.

Three macaques huddled together on a wet rock at the edge of the hot spring — Three monkeys keeping warm the other way.

A hot bath in the snow has one design flaw. Eventually, you have to get out. The bathers who did came out soaked, into falling snow, with their fur standing up in spikes. The ones on the rocks had the look of animals who had thought this through.

A soaked macaque with spiky fur leaning on a rock at the edge of the hot spring, one hand raised — Fur in spikes, one hand held up. It appeared to be checking the weather.

The best seat

For the ones who do go in, the bath seems to be doing them good. A 2018 study from Kyoto University, which followed twelve adult females, found that bathing in winter lowered their levels of stress hormones. It also found that the higher-ranking females spent longer in the water than the others. As at any popular bath, the best seat goes to whoever can hold it.

The same study found that the visitors, around 500 a day, had no effect on the monkeys’ stress levels. We were, apparently, less trouble than the weather.

An older macaque relaxing in the hot spring with its arms stretched along the edge — Arms along the edge. This one had the posture of someone who had booked the whole afternoon.

A bath for the rest of us

On the way out, one monkey was sitting among dead plants beside the path, eating grass.

A macaque eating grass among dry winter plants — Winter menu: grass. There was not an apple in sight.

Kōrakukan is still in the valley. According to the inn, monkeys still turn up at its bath from time to time.

The monkeys’ bath was not an option, so I went down the valley to find one of my own. Shibu Onsen is an old hot-spring town with a nine-bath circuit reserved for overnight guests. The monkeys’ bath has no door at all. Mine had a keyhole, and the key came with my room.

The wooden entrance of Wata-no-yu, the third public bath in Shibu Onsen, with a curved roof, a “Gentlemen” sign and a door with a keyhole — Wata-no-yu, the third of Shibu Onsen’s nine public baths.

The water was very hot. I got in the way the monkey had in 1963: fingers first, then one foot, then the other, with rather less composure.

Bathing in all nine is said to wash away nine troubles, since in Japanese “nine” and “hardship” can both be read ku. I managed several, which I assume took care of several.

A narrow stone-paved street in Shibu Onsen at dusk, with lit lanterns and old wooden inns on both sides — Shibu Onsen at dusk, between baths.

It had all begun with fruit. Apples got the monkeys into trouble, apples drew them into the valley, and an apple floating in a human bath got the first of them into the water. After that, nobody needed the apple.

In Eden, forbidden fruit got two people thrown out of paradise. In Hell Valley, it got the monkeys a paradise of their own, with a rule keeping the rest of us out.

Visit this place

Park

Jigokudani Yaen-kōen (地獄谷野猿公苑)

In the Yokoyu River valley, about 850 m up, at the end of a walking path of about 2 km from Kanbayashi Onsen.

6845 Hirao, Yamanouchi, Shimotakai District, Nagano 381-0401, Japan

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Practical Information

Opening hours: April–October 8:30–17:00; November–March 9:00–16:00. Open every day, but may close without notice in bad weather. Arrive at least 30 minutes before closing.
Admission: Adults (18 and over) 800 yen; children (elementary to high school) 400 yen; under 6 free with an adult. Cards and e-money accepted; QR payments are not.
Monkeys: The monkeys are wild. On some days they do not come to the park at all, and the times they arrive and leave vary. The park publishes a weekly forecast on its website. Bathing is most reliable in the cold months.
Access: From Yudanaka Station (Nagano Electric Railway), bus about 15 minutes to the Snow Monkey Park stop, then about 35 minutes on foot. Express buses to Shiga Kōgen from Nagano Station also stop there (about 41 minutes); check timetables before travelling.
Parking: Free car park at Kanbayashi Onsen, where the path starts. A paid car park closer to the park (500 yen) is reached by a narrow forest road from Shibu Onsen, which is closed in winter.
Path: About 2 km and around 30 minutes each way. Unpaved, with steps and slopes; not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. Expect snow and ice in winter.
Visitor note: Do not feed the monkeys (no food is sold for them). No pets, including assistance dogs. Visitors may not bathe with the monkeys. Keep children close.
Shibu Onsen: The nine-bath circuit is for guests staying in Shibu Onsen, with a key from the inn. Day visitors can use only the ninth bath, Ōyu. Shibu Onsen (Japanese)
Official information: Jigokudani Yaen-kōen

Information last checked: September 29, 2026Park hours, admission, access, parking, path conditions, visitor rules and the Shibu Onsen public baths.

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