DECEMBER AT JIGOKUDANI · BEST ODDS · 3RD OF TWELVE
Snow settles, and everything turns on the date
December is two months in one: mating season ending, snow settling from mid-month, the express bus going to winter frequency on the 6th, and the pass withdrawn over New Year the last time the park was full.
2.3 °C is the 1991–2020 mean for Nagano city at 418 m. The park is at 850 m and runs two to three degrees colder, so read it as about −0.7 to 0.3 °C. 30 cm of snow falls in an average December in the city.
The November–March timetable. Mating season ends · snow settles from mid-month.
The ticket, in detail湯THE GUIDED DAY, YEAR-ROUND$140 (≈¥21,800)PER PERSON · TICKET INCLUDEDOne price in all twelve months. What changes is what is at the end of it.
Live dates in DecemberWhat the calendar does to December
BEST ODDSEverything on this list is published by the park or by Nagaden and changes on a date. Mating season ends · snow settles from mid-month.
What the monkeys are doing in December
December is the handover: the mating season ends, the snow settles from mid-month, and the bath goes back into daily use. December is both: the bath is in use and the mating season is still running. The park puts the most bathing between December and March.
Thermoregulation and lower stress hormones — Takeshita et al., Primates 2018 (Kyoto University).
The park publishes a predicted time for the monkeys coming down from the mountain and asks visitors to check before traveling and again on the day, through its live cameras and social accounts — which is the only thing that answers «will they be there today», and it is free.
A tour cannot get you in when the park is full
Read before bookingOver New Year 2025/26 Nagaden withdrew the pass because the park was exceeding capacity, and said single tickets guaranteed nothing either.
THE TROOP DECIDES Park staff work to attract the monkeys during opening hours, but the monkeys may not show up at all on certain days; appearances are particularly sporadic in autumn. Seven of the 21 tours on this site include the ¥800 (≈$5.1) gate fee in the price and the rest leave it at the gate; not one of them includes a monkey.
LIVE DATES · DECEMBER · FROM NAGANO · TICKET INCLUDED
December, priced and dated
9:00–16:00 at the gate, 7 a day until 6 December, then up to 13, reportedly on the express bus, and mating season ends · snow settles from mid-month. Everything else about the day is the same in every month, and is priced on the pages below.
OR NOVEMBER INSTEAD · JANUARY INSTEAD · WINTER AS A WHOLE · ALL TWELVE COMPARED