JANUARY AT JIGOKUDANI · BEST ODDS · 1ST OF TWELVE

The month the photograph comes from

The deepest cold of the year and the most reliable bathing, which is also why it is the most crowded. If you are coming once, for the picture everyone has seen, this is the month — and you should expect to share it.

−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 −3.4 to −2.4 °C. 63 cm of snow falls in an average January in the city.

A young Japanese macaque walking through deep fresh snow towards the camera, snow settled on its head

¥THE GATE IN JANUARY9:00–16:00ADULT ¥800 (≈$5.1) · CHILD ¥400 (≈$2.6) · OPEN EVERY DAY

The November–March timetable. The deepest cold of the year.

The ticket, in detail 湯THE GUIDED DAY, YEAR-ROUND$140 (≈¥21,800)PER PERSON · TICKET INCLUDED

One price in all twelve months. What changes is what is at the end of it.

Live dates in January

What the calendar does to January

BEST ODDS

Everything on this list is published by the park or by Nagaden and changes on a date. The deepest cold of the year.

JANUARY · WHAT IS PUBLISHEDCHECKED 2026-09-06

The park’s hoursNOVEMBER–MARCH TIMETABLE · OPEN EVERY DAY

9:00–16:00

The express bus from Nagano StationJR NAGANO STATION EAST EXIT, BAY 23 · NO RESERVATIONS

up to 13 a day, reportedly

The Snow Monkey Pass, winter version2026/27 PRICES WERE NOT ANNOUNCED WHEN THIS PAGE WAS CHECKED, SO THESE ARE THE 2025/26 ONES

¥5,100 (≈$33) train / ¥6,800 (≈$44) bus

The Jigokudani car park is closed

1 December – 31 March

Boots, crampons and jackets at the trailhead shop

October–May, reportedly

The pass was withdrawn from sale over New Year 2025/26

30 December – 4 January

Togakushi's Okusha shrine closes

7 January until late April

What the monkeys are doing in January

January is the middle of the bathing season and the middle of the cold that causes it. 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 buy you an empty trail

Read before booking

Every operator arrives in the same three morning hours because the monkeys come down in them. In January the crowd is the product working as intended.

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.

The pool, right now January against the other eleven

LIVE DATES · JANUARY · FROM NAGANO · TICKET INCLUDED

January, priced and dated

9:00–16:00 at the gate, up to 13 a day, reportedly on the express bus, and the deepest cold of the year. Everything else about the day is the same in every month, and is priced on the pages below.

See dates · $140 (≈¥21,800) · ticket included

OR DECEMBER INSTEAD · FEBRUARY INSTEAD · WINTER AS A WHOLE · ALL TWELVE COMPARED