Top Nagano Day Trips

Taka was an awesome guide and he made sure all our questions were answered. The tour started with Sake tasting, which we did not care for since we do not drink alcohol. Still we made the best of our time there taking pictures in their courtyard which had a lot of cherry blossoms as well as other flowers. Next was the Shinkoji temple, which was pretty nice. There were a lot of other temples and shrines in the complex, which made it interesting. We then drive close to the money park but stopped for lunch before entering. Being vegetarians, we did not have high hopes based on our earlier experiences in Japan, but we're pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. All is it was very tasty and completely vegetarian as per our request. Of course, the highlight of the tour was the monkey park. There were tons of monkeys around and I'm addition to the hot spring, there was a nice river with small rapids that made for a great backdrop for the photos with the monkeys. The monkeys seen used to humans as they just went about their business ignoring us completely. We got done nice videos of monkeys jumping across the stream and scampering across over a small rope. Overall, we had a lot of fun there. Be advised that it is a1.6km walk from the parking lot to the hot spring. It is mostly flat, but we're muddy. We bought plastic shoe coverings at the gift shop and they were all worth it for the must condition of the trail. We highly recommend this tour for anyone interested in nature and animals.

Our guide Masa was wonderful and gave us a great experience. Despite the long walk it was well worth it to see the monkeys. Masa took us to a beautiful restaurant where we had an authentic lunch which we all really enjoyed. Afterwards we had a Sake tasting which was brilliant, it renewed my faith in Sake !!!! We were by far the eldest in the group, but Masa kept a watchful eye over us. All in all a great day, thank you Masa.

Dillion was an amazing guide. His deep knowledge was put to the test by our endless curiosity. If he didn’t know the answer he knew who to ask. We had a wonderful day that just kept getting better. We expected the snow monkeys to be the highlight and they certainly were, but the rest of the day was just as fascinating. Lunch was delicious and the conversation never slowed. The temple tour was quite interesting and Dillion shared his knowledge and personal experience freely. We bumped in to another tour group and their guide learned a few tidbits from Dillion. We enjoyed a little free time to explore and sampled a few treats at the temple complex. The final highlight was learning about the Sake brewing process and sampling a variety of excellent variations. A truly informative and adventurous day.