These Japanese SNOW MONKEYS Bathe in Hot Springs! 🐒🌿 | Jigokudani Monkey Park in Yamanouchi, Japan

Today we’re travelling to Yamanouchi in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. The mission: to find the snow monkeys soaking in the hot springs!

We visited at the end of summer, so don’t expect any snow, but we did get to see the macaques swimming, grooming, and living their most relaxed lives at the Jigokudani Monkey Park, locally known as Jigokudani Yaen Koen. This park also forms part of Joshinetsu Kogen National Park.

This destination is often visited as a day trip from Nagano, however, we opted to spend a couple of nights, so in this video, we’re going to share our ryokan experience, explore the town of Shibu Onsen, and enjoy some hot springs of our own!

So we invite you to hit that subscribe button and join us as we search for Japanese snow monkeys together.

Places we visited in Yamanouchi, Japan
00:48 – Checking into Minshuku Miyama
04:40 – Jigokudani Monkey Park Attempt 1
10:25 – Ramen Tokumi
12:35 – Nagano Apples
14:52 – Nofutomaru Footpath
16:31 – Onsenji Temple
19:27 – Jigokudani Monkey Park Attempt 2
28:06 – Dinner at ryokan
30:20 – Traditional Japanese room tour

#snowmonkey #naganoprefecture #japan

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Today we’re traveling to yamanochi in Japan’s Nagano prefecture the mission to find the famous snow monkeys soaking in the hot springs we’re actually here for two nights and the reason we came here is to see the snow monkeys now we visited at the end of summer so don’t

Expect any snow but we did get to see the makco swimming grooming and living their most relaxed lives at jigoku Dan monkey Park I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would yeah me too this destination is often visited as day trip from Nagano City however we opted to

Spend a couple of nights here so in this video we’re going to share our Ron experience explore the town and enjoy some hot springs of our own so we invite you to hit that subscribe button and join us as we explore this onson town Together the first thing we did shortly after checking into our guest house was to put on our yukatas and head down to the onen now we couldn’t film a lot in the hot springs for obvious reasons since they are communal and in Japan you do go in naked but we’ll share a bit

More about the [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] experience All righty guys good afternoon we are all checked in at our Ron here in yamanoi we are staying at minshuku Miama and this is a traditional Japanese guest house uh we opted for room and board so that means we’re also getting breakfast and we’re getting uh a traditional

Japanese dinner a kaiseki meal tonight uh we’re actually here for two nights and the reason we came here is to see the snow monkeys so I’ll give you a tour of the room shortly uh but we just went down to the onen we had our first Onsen

Experience as soon as we checked in so I’m still wearing my Yukata nice blue color I really like it and it’s a cool experience because if you’re staying at this Rio you have access to what is actually a public Onsen so anyone who is not staying here has to pay to have

Access to it and it is such a beautiful spot we’ve stayed at a few different Rons on this trip and I think this one has the most impressive onon of the mall because it’s outdoors and it’s just well I filmed a few clips for you so you’re

Going to see what it’s like so yeah in the onon it’s separated you know men to one side women to the other so if you’re a woman you look for the red flag blue flag for men and then yeah Sam and I both went and just really enjoyed like a

Chill half an hour there it wasn’t very busy at all they have little lockers where you can lock up your things you know you shower and then you head into the Onsen and it was just a lot of fun and then we drank some green tea and

Came back had a little rest in the room and soon enough it’s going to be time for dinner so that’s how we’re spending our first day here we arrived in the afternoon and it was quite Journey we had to take three different trains and a bus to get here just because of our

Location so it took quite a bit of effort we are feeling tired so it’s going to be a chill day but tomorrow we’re taking you to see those snow monkeys so stay Tuned Oh it’s that little Dessert well friends good morning good morning today is the big day the big adventure we are going in search of the famous snow monkeys although there won’t be snow this time of the year no and maybe there won’t be monkeys because we just stopped at the the front entrance and

There’s a screen we don’t know if it’s a joke or not but it says No Monkeys the monkeys haven’t arrived at the omson yet and the staff have gone out to look for them I don’t I don’t I don’t think it’s a joke but it is it is a little bit

Funny in the sense that uh yeah we may be going all the way up there not seeing them but um it’s just the way it is right what can you do we roll with it and fortunately if they’re not here this morning we are leaving uh tomorrow but

We can probably delay our travel a little bit and try again yes but we’re going to see what happens I have no idea if we’re going to see them or not for the time being we’re enjoying a nice beautiful walk here in the forest up in the mountains thank goodness there’s so

Much shade because it’s still so hot my goodness it’s like late September and it feels I mean like the it’s still summer weather and apparently this might be the last couple days of this heat so we’re hoping that that ends but anyways um yeah a nice beautiful walk in the forest

And maybe some monkeys maybe some monkeys maybe not now even if there are no monkeys right now this is a beautiful walk through the forest it’s just a forest of cedar trees it’s so Lush so green and so cool like that’s the beautiful thing about walking through a

Forest like the temperature is a lot cooler than what it is in the town right now so yeah the climate is quite humid here so it’s just nice kind of feeling that soft Cool Breeze as we walk through here and I will mention I do hear like

Some some sort of animal screeching in the forest so maybe that is a monkey so something to consider friends is that we decided to stay overnight at a Ron and the reason we did that one of the two reasons is that first of we just love it we love the experience of

Staying in a traditional Japanese Inn having a really nice meal having an own send to soak and relax but one of the reasons too is that we can get up early in the morning and do this hike before the tourist buses arrive yeah and so that’s one of the added benefits of

Visiting a destination that does get a lot of tourists if you actually end end up staying there you can sometimes beat the crowds and it looks like we have because there’s really no one else on the trail right now so here’s another animal we can potentially expect to find

In the park it’s called a Japanese Sero have you ever heard of Saros in your life I have not neither have I that’s fascinating what the heck is a Sero wow it’s a fascinating looking animal I I do not know so it looks like it’s got little horns and it’s

Capricornis so maybe a little a type of sheep or goat I would say a very furry goat sheep type animal it has horns with pointed tips all righty we’ll see if we see any SOS along the way so something we’ve been molding over on the hike up is have we ever

Visited an attraction where the attraction didn’t show up oh um I can’t think of anything only if it was like cloudy or overcast okay maybe in Hong Kong when we went up to Victoria Peak once okay and it was so foggy you couldn’t really see the city skyline

True that’s my one example of the attraction not being there yeah weather could for a situation like clouds covering a mountains or whatever but that’s weather’s weather an actual uh you know it makes me realize that we don’t go to to view animals very often mhm and I guess even normally if we

Would it would be there this is interesting for sure no monkeys now we’re not sure when monkeys come to the park you were right it wasn’t a joke no I didn’t think it was I thought it was why why would they do that because it was worded in such a

Funny way I didn’t think it was a joke but we can go talk to the to the staff and see I mean it’s very very clear we’re not sure when the monkeys come to the park so yes they they don’t keep a schedule no nor should they good for

Them for being independent I I have respect for those monkeys you should be doing your own thing your own monkey business as we should say Okay so this area is locally known as jigokudani which means hell Valley kind of reminiscent of the places we visited in

Nood vitu in Hokkaido uh but yeah there is a giant geyser directly behind me you can see over there and apparently it spews a plume of water that reaches up to 20 M and what’s interesting about this geyser is that it’s constant so with others maybe every few minutes like

You get this shot of water but with this one it’s just nonstop now let’s talk about jigokudani hot spring koraku Kan this is a me shuku or traditional family run guest house located directly across the entrance to the snow monkey Park park it opened its doors in 1864 and offers simple Japanese style

Accommodations with indoor and outdoor Hot Springs knowing the monkeys like to hang out nearby you can probably guess where we’re going with this yes this is one of those rare places where you can share your outdoor bath with monkeys this isn’t where we stayed but it’s a very unique guest house the only

Potential downside is that you have to hide to get here so pack light Well today it is ramen for lunch look at that wonderful Bowl laa yeah we got the large sizes I think it’s called there’s a word for that I should have d d means that’s the word dye means big so if you want to order the big Ramen the one that has dye these

Are beautiful big portions like oh we’re both excited about this and you got the charu ramen with pork looks good have to say that after doing the uh doing all the hiking to not see the monkeys we worked up a pretty big appetite that was a decent hike and then went down the

Hill to catch a bus we caught a little bus into town and we’re going to make the most of our our time in town hopefully the monkeys will be there if not that’s totally fine too well miso Ramen for me the broth is delicious I really enjoy

The love and attention and care I get put into like the Japanese just watching them prepare it’s just amazing isn’t it it’s an art form it’s an art such a cool little hole in the wall spot too you can eat at the eat at the table or eat where the chef is

Preparing or there also the tradition seating where we’re at and we’re having a very early lunch 11: a.m. we’re ready for ramen we are and I ordered the Charo Ramen which includes these nice little delectable slices of of meat here pork here I going to try a little bit of that

Too super super tender just disintegrates in your mouth also very salty really tasty ran I’m going to enjoy every single bite and slurp of this me too well that was a lovely little lunch we were the only people there and the chef was just so attentive

So kind and I mean he put so much detail into her meal into the preparation like he took his time with everything and it was delicious like that was some mouthwatering miso soup no complaints there and then just as we were leaving we got a little gift want to show us

Yeah beautiful beautiful apples apples and uh look at that apples in Japan are exceptional I’ve tried them a few times also not not cheap fruit is not cheap fruit is not cheap especially apples but the quality is just amazing so we’re going to save these for a little snack a

Little snack in the afternoon perfect to kind of tide us through until dinner and uh yeah just such such nice warm hospitality and and and kindness here and we’re we’re we’re we’re enjoying our day it hasn’t gone according to plan but it’s fun now that we’re here in the town

And we’ve had something to eat we’re going to go explore for a bit see what we can find and about the apples I’ll mention one more thing we’re in an area that has lots of apple orchards so apples are actually something something to try such a lush area so not surprised

That apples grow here W Look at what we just came across we can buy hot soft boiled eggs with water from the the hot spring 50 cents the most interesting thing I’m not sure if you noticed this it’s an honor System yes look you put your you put your coins in there yeah

Take your egg take your egg it’s going to come out probably with a beautiful you know salery taste I don’t know about that no it’s going to be cooked well definitely better than it’s it’s natural it’s more natural another lovely fpb this is the first one we’ve gone to here let’s go

Check it out super hot super hot oh my gosh Burns yeah Burns a bit okay I’ll I’ll toughen it up oh that’s the hottest foot bath I have ever had also a really hot day so the idea of a hot bath isn’t that appealing but I did it I found the

Cooler section still warm but if you put your feet on the left hand side yeah that’s uh that’s more like it I don’t need to be roasting in the sun like right now so it says public bath is very hot if it is hot please put some water

So looks like that’s probably cold water there that you can add in and regulate the temperature I feel like you could use some on the side over here is just right okay so one unique thing about this town about Shibu onen is that it is a town of Onsen and specifically there

Are nine Onsen that treat different ailment and you can go and visit all nine like you can turn this into a challenge also some of the Ron that you stay at have a key that gives you special access to all nine Onsen so you can walk around town with this special

Key and have access that is free because it’s included with your Ron stay but again it’s a specific list of Rons so when you’re looking around you need to see if you’re staying at one of the nine otherwise you have to pay to to access the onson temple Time guys I’m going to see if Sam’s able to capture that wasp nest with a super zoom but that is big let me tell you very actually it looks like the size of a jack fruit which is quite large wouldn’t you say oh my gosh it’s huge so are They So these are the first monkeys we have seen today the famous here no EV evil speak no evil see no evil monkeys what do you think finally got to see our monkeys at the temp what we’re here for well if you can believe it at the base of the temple oseni temple

Another foot bath this one is quite fancy the seating is already implemented these round little seats different sections probably different temperatures I’m really excited for this one you’re going in I prob I won’t complain this time whether hot or cold or anything in between I’m going to enjoy it going in

I’m going in all right so we’ve had a really busy morning Super Active in the heat we just got back to the Ron and the plan was to rest a little bit have a little nap but then we found out there’s a webcam of the snow monkeys and the

Snow monkeys appear to be there right now right now so they’re there they’re there one two all the monkeys are there four five and there aren’t too many people visiting yeah it looks like there’s only two people there oh look that’s much closer updated okay so all

Right so the deal is the monkeys are there we got to hi tail it I mean we we’d love to have a little rest we’ve been out in the heat sweating all day but we came here to see those monkeys yeah so get ready for like a 40 minute

Walk uphill and if you think we’re sweaty now we need y s a will be by the time we get there anyways we’re going let’s do this there oh thank God way less chatter this time around we are just on a mission hiking trying to get there as soon as possible hopefully before the rain arrives and before the monkeys leave although if it’s raining I like to imagine they’d be soaking in the onent to escape the Cool Rain but you

Never know guys we’re getting there we’re starting to see monkeys on the path monkey monkey monkey see monkey de monkey monkey pass discreetly monkey is eating don’t chase me monkey oh look it’s you monkey wow oh hello monkey oh yum yum Beau okay beautiful boy okay I’m a hungry boy or [Applause] Girl The monkeys are out and about we’ve entered the park and they’re they’re eating on the side of the path like I thought maybe they were only going to hang out in the onen they’re just chilling wow looking perum jigokudani monkey Park is most famous for its large population of wild

Japanese Macks they are more commonly known as monkeys since they descend from the mountains down to the hot springs where they spend the winter months in a warm steamy Bliss while the snow comes down all around them in fact they’ve become so accustomed and pampered by

This way of life that you can expect to find them here year round even if they show up a bit later in the day because they are out foraging we visited in September towards the end of Summer and the monkeys were already going into the water though I can’t guarantee they do

So during the hottest months of the year but now let’s just enjoy the monkeys being Monkeys oh swimming swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming help me [Applause] oh Oh I got it [Applause] perfectly More All righty visit to the monkey Park included we are now on our way out so wasn’t that awesome yeah Not only was the experience great but there’s just something about it almost not working out and then having the chance to do it and being like fingers crossed and then

Having it all work out at the end there just something that just makes it even better those monkeys are sure unpredictable and on the way up I actually noticed a sign that talks about the monkey daily routine so I’m going to share it with you because it might be

Helpful for planning your visit if that really is how they spend most of their day so they wake up and they actually forage in the forest to find their own breakfast yes so depending on the time of year that means like little plant shoots and like little blooms nuts

Insects seeds things like that so they eat their breakfast in the forest and then after breakfast they rest they do not come straight to the onson they rest then once they’ve had their little morning nap they descend to the onen where apparently it sounds like they’re fed their lunch it sounds like they’re

Fed during the day uh to keep them hanging out in the are to stay yes and then they’ve got their routine which I’m sure you’ve seen in the footage they’re grooming they’re bathing you know picking fleas they’re swimming sliming fighting like children monkey business as they say Monkey Business yeah so that’s their

Routine for most of the day and they stay at the onen until the late afternoon and once the Sun starts going down it starts getting dark uh they leave and they go back up into the forest to sleep wherever it is they sleep so the thing is earlier this

Morning we were like yeah if you get there early it’s amazing because you have the place to yourself there’s no one there but the monkeys weren’t there either no so I don’t know if today was a one-off or if they usually arrive a bit later but I would actually suggest

Coming a bit later in the morning or even in the afternoon yeah it wasn’t like it wasn’t impossibly crowded it felt like you got to have a lot of nice experiences getting up close and intimate now the thing with these monkeys that I’ve noticed compared to other monkeys which have been very

Aggressive these ones are very doile they’re yeah there was no biting no jumping on people I mean I’ve had the opposite experience going to UB and oh my gosh I’m still slightly scarred from a a monkey that jumped on my leg many years ago but that’s a story for another

Day it was just yeah just a wonderful encounter and a beautiful walk together there overall just a really nice experience and I’m just so glad we got to do it there was really that that that moment where I thought we’re not going to be able to yeah and I’ll say I I

Likeed seeing that the monkeys can come and go um I I wasn’t sure what kind of setting this was going to be um are are they wild are they semi- wild are they in captivity but like even outside of the monkey Park like as we were approaching we were already starting to

See monkeys on the side of the road and on the side of the mountain eating and things like that yeah they’re given free rain they’re given a lot of autonomy and it’s just it’s a it’s a vast space yeah that just just loved it absolutely loved

It um I enjoyed it so much more than I thought thought I would yeah me too yeah worth the effort worth coming back twice if the same things happens to you put in that extra effort try again and try again dinner at the Ron this fine evening we came 5 minutes early um

There’s going to be some other people dining but we’re the first here we’re the first and the meal looks amazing does once again I love that it’s a little collection of a little Emoji for dessert and dumpling we’ve got fish we’ve got looks like BBE some kind of a

Beef oh looks like Shabu Shabu today or Nai La La the meals at this guest house were one of the highlights of our visit everything was delicious and there were always so many little dishes with different flavors and textures to enjoy plus the people who run this place were just so kind and attentive so here’s a look at our final breakfast before

Checking Out All righty this room is looking very messy so I’m going to tidy up and we can do the room tour or should we do a realistic room tour oh my gosh now let’s let’s tiey up that’s that’s too embarrassing yeah this is like we have this uncanny ability to create messes

Short period of time U yeah it’s a spectacular skill set we have all right give us a few moments to to pack it up Yep In today’s episode of MTV Cribs we’re showing you a traditional Japanese Ron Ron version yeah so guys this is a traditional Japanese Ron it’s really cool because we there’s different types of Rons you can stay in a hotel Ron you can stay in kind of like a midsize Hotel

One or you can stay in a traditional family one this is a traditional family one so this is our room over here so if you take a look we have our two beds on the floor so you do sleep on the floor you’re not hoisted up which is western

Style now the floors are to Tammy mm which are actually I find really nice really like it’s just it’s nice to walk on they have a nice smell as well you notice and the thing too is you take your shoes off at the door the sliding door opens and you either come in

Barefoot or with socks that’s how you walk around we found like we had amazing sleeps on here so you get used to it right away in my opin I think you have a better sleep sleeping on the floor to be honest and then over here we have this

Would be the basically the dining or tea area you have some mats which you can put out and you just sit down and you enjoy this table the nice thing about the table is that when you’re not using it you can store it in the corner of the

Room so it doesn’t take up a lot of space the thing about a Ron is that it’s space efficient normally you might take your mattresses put them away in in the cupboards in that one want to show exactly into here so you can take it and just put it right into here there’s

Extra bedding and so on yeah I should mention we were here for two nights and we just left the beds out but during the day you would roll all of this away stick it in the closet and then you have more space yeah then you have the entire

Room to to you put you put your table in the center and you like the room becomes big all of a sudden when you put the bedding away so it’s very space efficient um that’s what you find in Japan because there’s a big population here and a small amount of land so

They’re experts at space efficiency so this is actually our first time seeing at a Ron that has shared bathrooms so you could explain that for us okay what you do is you just leave your room you open your little sliding door you put on your slippers you walk down the hall a

Little bit the first thing you’ll notice is a sink a large sink area there’s I think four or five stations that’s where you can brush your teeth wash your hands if you continue on a little bit further you reach the toilet area and what you do when you arrive there there’s men and

Women’s you take off your slippers you exchange them for rubber slippers you then go in and do your business and then you come out so that’s the B that’s the bathroom options on the same level that you’re sleeping now the other option is you go down one floor to the ground

Level and you have the onen inside of the onen there’s also another toilet and there’s also a shower station and uh and and some more sinks as well so there’s plenty of options for keeping yourself clean while you’re staying here and it will be communal showers with like a

Little stool you sit there you shower and then communal onson as well for yeah the bath Park if you’ve never done it before you might be a little shy the first time but you get used to it really quick like it’s just a part of the culture here and now that we’ve been

Doing it for a while it just just feels like second nature to be honest and guys that’s a wrap for the video we’re ending things with the room tour we hope you guys enjoyed this video and the destination where we showed you realon stay onen and also some interesting

Hiking in in the monkeys of course the Japanese snow monkeys if you enjoyed that please give it a thumbs up leave a comment subscribe and stay tuned because we have so many more videos coming from Japan