Relax In Steamy Hot Springs With Monkeys At This Remote Mountain Town In Japan

Yudanaka Onsen in Yamanouchi has been a place where people go to enjoy the hot springs that bubble naturally out of the mountains for hundreds of years. The community is small, and when I arrived at Yudanaka Station on a chilly evening in early February, nearly everything was closed. Many of the little traditional wooden buildings were dark, making it seem as if the entire town had turned in early. A slight sulfury smell hung in the air and the silhouettes of the staggeringly tall, snow-covered mountains that surround Yudanaka towered overhead. The only sound was rushing water, flowing under grates along the side of the street.

This town is worth the 3-hour picturesque train ride through the mountains from Tokyo on its own, but the real draw is the monkeys. If you hop on the shuttle bus or take a cab from Yudanaka Station, in 10 minutes, you will be at Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park. You might not have heard of it by name, but you've probably seen the photos. There are many fantastic apps for planning your travel, but if you spend your time scrolling through Instagram and fantasizing about your next trip, you may come across photos of relaxed looking snow monkeys enjoying sauna-like hot soaks in the middle of snowstorms. You can see them for yourself in the morning and then follow their lead by soaking in the steamy hot spring waters yourself in the evening.

While humans have been enjoying hot springs in Northern Nagano for centuries, as detailed by one report from the New York Times, it's believed that the snow monkeys didn't start soaking in these natural saunas until the 1960s. A local macaque troop descended on hotel bathing pools, and to divert them, locals built them some pools of their own up in the mountains. Today, these monkeys bathing in hot springs are a major tourist attraction. To see them, though, you have to be ready for a hike. 

The best time to visit the monkeys is in winter, because they all congregate in the hot pools to escape the chilly weather — but the hike through the forest in the snow can be tricky. The journey itself only takes around half an hour, but the trail can be icy and slippery with mud. While Yudanaka is quiet, the monkey park has visitors coming in on shuttles from the surrounding area, so the narrow trails can be crowded, too. You'll want to make sure you have snow boots for the journey. When you get to the top, however, a once-in-a-lifetime destination is waiting. The monkeys relaxing in the hot springs are beautiful, but what's truly staggering is the sheer number of them hopping around on stone walls, feeding their babies, getting in play fights, and running thrillingly close to you as they move from pool to pool.

If you believe Nagano's official tourism site, Yadanaka was where the local samurai would go to be healed after battle. I personally hadn't been through any battles when I arrived in Yudanaka, but I had managed to come down with a cold and lost my voice (as if using a combination of a few polite phrases in Japanese and Google Translate to communicate wasn't enough of a challenge). While I can't confirm whether or not it extended my lifespan, a few soaks in the shockingly hot baths did restore my voice.

If you're going to make the journey to northern Nagano, you should definitely take the opportunity to stay in a ryokan in Yudanaka Onsen. These inns give you access to local bathhouses, and in some cases, even have their own private hot spring bath you can use. If you're looking for stunning Japanese destinations that won't break the bank, your best bet might be Maruka Ryokan. The rooms are beautiful and traditional, with white paneled screens dividing the entryway, main room, and small seating area. The charming hosts provide slippers for walking around their old wooden halls, and may even pick you up from the train station themselves if you ask politely. While I had to communicate with them using a pocket translator, they went above and beyond to make us feel welcome.