Snow Monkeys in a hot natural onsen - Nagano, Japan.

This has got to be the #1 tourist site in the world.

Man...I've got to get there...but there's only snow in the winter, yeah?
It's slightly underwhelming depending on what you expect. The train ride out is beautiful. The hike through the forest is great. The monkeys are far from wild and while the spring is natural, the tub they're sitting in is far from it.

The first thing to know is that like any other attraction, there will be a lot of other tourists there. The site sits in the canyon with a small stream at the bottom and there's a clear area where the monkeys kind of hang out. As I said, they are not completely wild, and the food is spread across the area to keep them there.

The onsen itself is just across a bridge, past the visitor center. It's obviously man made. While I was there, the keepers/volunteers/employees (not sure what their status is) distributed apples, which caused a large commotion among the monkeys and attracted more to the area.

It's certainly a wonderful site to see, hundreds of monkeys running about, but if you're expecting to tromp through the woods and see wild monkeys simply hanging out in a natural spring carved from the rocks...that's not what's going to happen.
If you wanna see a park overrun by Japanese monkeys the one in Kyoto seems a lot more conveniently located. Plus it's on a big hill with a nice view of the city.
We were there in December so it was nice and snowy. I think there's only snow in the winter.
Definitely on my bucket list for next time I head to Japan. I've done plenty of the main spots in the Kanto and Kansai regions but not all that much in other regions like Chubu. We did see a couple of wild monkeys near Tsumago in the Kiso Valley, though.

Got any tips from your visit? Where did you stay, how did you travel around?
Japan is super easy to travel around. We had rail passes which were excellent. The trains are fast, reliable and punctual! We were worried about there being stuff to do in the autumn/winter but it turned out to be beautiful! We mainly stayed in hostels.
I lived in Suzaka for a year, just down the tracks. Awesome area of Japan! We took our kids to Nagano last year so they could see where we taught English for a year, great city. Don't stare at the monkeys.