Monkey Hot Spring

Hi, Does anyone know how to get to the Monkey Hot Spring from Matsumoto? According to the train timetable, we will get to Matsumoto at about 11:28AM and less than 10 mins walk to the hotel to leave our bags there. Do you think we would have enough time to see the castle and go to the hot spring in one afternoon?

Many thanks,

http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/english/aboutus/aboutus.html

Not sure if i'm much of a help here... But I went to the monkey hot spring place last year in Jan. Getting there was quite an adventure itself. From Nagano, i took a local train to Yudanaka. And from there, i had to take a local bus which brings me to a bus stop. From the bus stop to the entrance of the hot spring is about a 2.4KM walk (about 30 mins).

Sounds like it's not going to be enough time to see the castle and snow monkey in one day. We might just go straight to see the snow monkey from Tokyo and go to Matsumoto in the evening. As for the castle, we'll just have to do it the next morning and leave for Takayama at lunch time.

Btw, was it worth it with all the travelling or should I skip it?

I visited the snow monkeys just three weeks ago. By now, I'd expect the windy path to the park to be pretty snowed in. We got in via the nagaden express bus from Nagano (to save on another transfer). The walk from bus-stop to start of park took at least 20mins. The supposed/estimated 40mins walk to the park was an underestimation for us. In all we took at least 75min to get to the park. Then you'll need to plan same amount of time to get out. By we, I am refering to 2 healthy mid 30s who love walking but are not very familiar to walking in snowy conditions.

We left Tokyo at 750 (if I remember correctly) and got onto the 1015 nagaden express bus. Reached onsen bus-stop at 1100. Think we only reached the park at 1230. Btw the bus schedules that I found at the Japanese Nagaden site is different from schedule at bus-stop. So perhaps you may wanna pop by the bus-stop to snap the schedule for your way back.

Anyway we kinda concluded that since the Japanese are used to walking and walking fast, it may be safer to buffer in more time. For us, we decided to x2 :p hth! It was well worth the trek in btw :)

Note that during winter months, there is a shuttle van from the parking lot that can cut short the walking time.

http://www.yudanaka-shibuonsen.com/snow_monkey_mini_bus

Bedebe, thanks for your detailed explanation. Sounds like a real trek. We'll be there early December. I know it's a long way yet, but I want to get all the information I can before I make any bookings.

William, thanks for the link. I have bookmarked it.