FEBRUARY AT JIGOKUDANI · BEST ODDS · 2ND OF TWELVE
The deepest snow, and the same odds
February has less cold than January and more snow on the ground. For the pool it is the same month; for the walk in it is the harder one.
0.4 °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 −2.6 to −1.6 °C. 50 cm of snow falls in an average February in the city.
The November–March timetable. The deepest snow cover.
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 FebruaryWhat the calendar does to February
BEST ODDSEverything on this list is published by the park or by Nagaden and changes on a date. The deepest snow cover.
What the monkeys are doing in February
February is the same season with more snow underfoot and marginally less cold in the air. The bath is in use. The park is explicit that the monkeys bathe to stave off the cold — not at all hours, and not all year.
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 clear the path
Read before bookingThe trail is ice under snow for most of February. A guide walks it with you; nobody grits it.
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 · FEBRUARY · FROM NAGANO · TICKET INCLUDED
February, priced and dated
9:00–16:00 at the gate, up to 13 a day, reportedly on the express bus, and the deepest snow cover. Everything else about the day is the same in every month, and is priced on the pages below.
OR JANUARY INSTEAD · MARCH INSTEAD · WINTER AS A WHOLE · ALL TWELVE COMPARED