Hi all,
Would appreciate advice from those who have been. I am travelling with 3 kids to Hakuba from Tokyo for a 2 days only ski trip. I was thinking of visiting the monkey park on way there. I have tried booking a taxi from Nagane station but they are fully booked. I can take a bus but not sure if the bus can accomodate our Lugguage? I am trying to find another taxi company which allow email in English but not getting anywhere. We are not keen on joining a tour as we are time poor. My last resort is to rent a car for a day and drive ourselves there back and forth but cannot find any info to see if that's doable. Would appreciate any advice!!! Last resort is to cancel booking at Hakuba and move to shiga kogen area which is near the snow monkey but would hate to go down this lane.
Thanks!!!!!
Jigokudani Snow Monkeys Park
Comments
If you rent a car, you can do so from outside Nagano Station. There is a Nippon Rent-A-Car right outside it. The drive is about 90 minutes plus a 15 minute walk from the car park to one of the hotsprings where the monkeys are
The alternative is to leave your luggage at the lockers in Nagano station. The biggest lockers will cost you about 500 yen (They are single-use only) so you can take the bus without the worry of luggage! There are plenty of lockers so you wont have any issues with them.
If you are doing it on a transit to Tokyo, you should have your hotel in Hakuba send your luggage onwards to your Tokyo hotel via takkyubin service the day before you leave, thus avoiding the matter altogether.
You have a few options for travel to the park.
I wouldn't suggest a taxi, as this could be fairly expensive. There is also a bit of a walk through the forest to get to the onsens where the monkeys are with no where to leave your luggage.
There are storage lockers at Nagano Station that will hold normal size suitcases/luggage. So store your luggage in these and catch the bus. I believe they even have some ski/board lockers now, but haven't used them.
If you do catch the bus visit the information centre at the station first for directions, this would probably be there most common question so there is plenty of information in English available.
The other option for your luggage is to TA-Q-BIN it from the airport or your earlier destination to your hotel. I've used this service every year, generally from Tokyo Airport we have received our gear the following evening at the ski resorts around the Nagano area. At worst the morning of the second day. We just carry our ski gear, days clothes and essentials. Saves having to carry large bags around and is quite economical. http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/personal/ta_q_bin/If you're after guided tours most of the resort villages will have one leaving on certain days during the week. Have a look at the Hakuba Information centre or contact your accommodation for details when they do these tours. Generally they are a half day tour. Hakuba is probably the most westernised of the fields in the area so there should be plenty of English information available.
There's a helpful page on whirlpool about japan travel in general.
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/japantravelfaq#japantraveltrans…Thanks so much, absolutely appreciate all your contributions!!!m
probably a guided tour. we went a few weeks sgo but rented a car. no snow though but its ok because the trek is a bit narrow and my kids r very small so would be more stressful in snow conditions. my friend was there last week.. lots of snow and abdolutely stunning.
Apparently there are some lockers at Nagano station for luggage:
http://www.yudanaka-shibuonsen.com/access
I personally caught the train to Yudanaka (44 min from Nagano, 1160 yen). From there, it's only 7km to the park and there's a couple of shuttles and a taxi service (drives you there and waits around for an hour apparently) . A luggage counter too but I wasn't looking for it:
http://www.go-nagano.net/blog/?p=3600
Keep in mind there's a 2km walk in when you get there so you might want to have dropped your luggage off somewhere.
Sorry, I couldn't help more. I stayed in Shibu Onsen and they drove us there.