Train to the Snow Monkey Park

I’ll tell you in detail how to get to the Jigokudani Yaen-koen snow monkey park on the Japanese island of Honshu, in the northern part of Nagano Prefecture. In fact, the train itself deserves special attention. It has such a design that the driver must be in good physical shape :)

The journey starts from Nagano Station. But not through the Japan Railways (JR) line, but through the Dentetsu line. Looking around, I did not find signs, I had to ask the station supervisor. He gave me the route and indicated the direction of movement. The Japanese in this sense are very savvy, so as not to explain on the fingers, they always have specially prepared paper.

Inside the car looks like this. Part of the cabin is located below, then it will be clear why. See the ladder on the right, remember it. I did not immediately understand what she was for.

A ticket from Nagano station to Yudanaka station costs 1,260 yen, which is about 660 rubles. Buy in the machine. When you enter the platform they put a stamp on it, without it the ticket is invalid. The truth was a couple of times that I accidentally penetrated without marks, at the exit I just gave a ticket, no sanctions were applied.

On the way, I took a photo through glass, a sketch from Japanese life, so to speak. Drive 5 stops, approximately 45 minutes in time. Station Yudanaka - the final, you will not pass by.

Yudanaka Station is located in the town of Yamanouchi. Sometimes they write Yama-no Uti. Why the station is called Yudanaka and not Yamanouchi is not clear. When I was preparing for the trip and studying the information, at first I got confused. Yudanaka is located at an altitude of almost 600 meters and is the highest station on the Nagano line.

The station is small. The building has a small waiting room and a tourist information center. When the train arrives on the platform, a Japanese song is played.

I immediately went to the buses. She called the stop - Snow Monkey Park - they sold me a ticket. The fare is 310 yen, which is about 160 rubles.

There are many directions, the snow monkey park is the most popular. I regret that I had only two days. You can spend a week in the mountains, watch something new every day and walk along different routes.

The bus is already standing. I got lucky again. On the way from Tokyo, I did not spend time waiting at all.

Snow Monkey Park stop is located near the Roman Museum. I immediately took a picture of the schedule in order to calculate my time. From the same stop you can go straight to Nagano, bypassing the train. A ticket costs 1,400 yen.

Everyone understands that tourists do not go to the museum, but to the monkeys, so a diagram of how to go is drawn.

There is another stop closer to the park. It is called Kanbayashi-onsen. Located here. Filmed the schedule, use it.

Then there were monkeys. On the way back, I walked around the town of Yamanouchi. This is such a provincial, even rural Japan. I returned to the Yudanaka station, and there was a stand with interesting things. Once again I regretted that I did not have time for all this. Will have to someday come to the Nagano region again.

Ahh, the lift! Want Want!!! This is the mountain resort of Ryuoo Ski Park.

Moreover, I also did not see the statue of Cannon.

On the right is the first building of the station, on the left is the current one. The only way is one. Previously, some tricky U-turn was used there, and did not understand how everything happened. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

Previously, the station had a different type of platform with access to two tracks, usually only the second track was used. There was a stopover on the territory. In the past, in order to introduce a three-car train on a path near a horizontal platform (which, in principle, can accommodate three cars), it was necessary, after crossing the intersection of the main railway track, to drive about 200 meters along an additional track and, making a U-turn, call the path at the platform. Thus, this station was a rather rare type. This was done because the station stands on a slope of 40%. The horizontal part of the platform is difficult to lengthen towards Sinshu-Nakano, and when entering in the usual way, the first car was at the intersection of railway tracks inside the station. Two-car trains were completely placed on the platform, and a U-turn was not used for them. In September 2006, a major overhaul was carried out, the U-turn became irrelevant, the platform took its current form, the intersection along with the additional route were abolished. The main reason for the change in traffic management was the inconvenience of the review for the train driver of the 1000 series train.

In the photo above the platform is the Shinsho-Nakano train, this is the next station. Why such a train runs, I did not understand. You can get to Nagano with a change: one stop on it, then, after waiting 15 minutes, already to the end. Thus, the road takes 1 h 25 min. There is no point, it is better to wait for a direct train, it takes only 45 minutes. I left at 16:43. Schedule below, maybe someone will come in handy.

Here is the express train that runs from Yudanaka Station to Nagano. Please note that the driver’s cab is at the top. How does he get there - a separate attraction :)