Getting there

From all the googled info, it seemed best to have accomodations at either Yudanaka Onsen or Shibu Onsen which are the nearest little towns (about 2km) to Snow Monkey Park. We initially planned to book accomodations at Yudanaka Onsen and hire a self-drive car and save the hassle of train and bus schedules etc. The road trip from Tokyo's Haneda International Airport to Yudanaka Onsen seemed easy enough. We Singaporeans are required to obtain an  International Driving Permit (IDP) to rent and drive a car in Japan. But we gave up on self drive after checking the Japanese local weather conditions, and details of the road route.


The route we had to take was Haneda International Airport > Tokyo Station > Nagano Station > Nagano Dentetsu Rail Line (see graphic below).



Two ways to get to Tokyo Station viz by Tokyo Monorail from Haneda > Hamamatsucho Station > and train toTokyo Station (total 25 minutes); or by Bus from Haneda > Tokyo Station (40 minutes).

Diagram above shows how to use the Monorail and drawings below show the location of the Monorail at Haneda International Airport.

More information is available on the website of the Tokyo Monorail.


We decided to take the Bus (discovered when buying ticket at site that it's also known as Airport Limousine, or Bus Express) as it'll save us the hassle of transferring from Monorail to train at Hammatsucho Station, and some luggage trundling besides getting an additional 15 minutes viewing of Tokyo from the Bus.

All the details are at the Bus website. During our visit, the website showed 16 Bus trips daily from Haneda International Airport to Tokyo Station from 8.25am till 8.05pm.

The Bus Counter was the first one to our left when we cleared the Customs and Immigration at Haneda Terminal 1.

Buying the tickets was a breeze as the salesperson spoke English. With her directions and the many signs, it was easy to walk stright to the end of the building, take a lift down to ground level and see the Bus stop  #1 (for Tokyo). There were toilets beside the Bus stops.

Shot taken at Bus stop; with Tokyo JR Station in background

Arriving in Tokyo, the Bus stop was opposite the Tokyo JR Station's south exit. Trundled our luggage bags across the road and into the station. Asked our way to the JR ticket office, bought Green Car tickets for the Nagano Shinkansen, asked our way to the appropriate platform, and we were on our way from Tokyo to Nagano.

TripAdvisor was a great source for help for information on getting from point to point, but nothing beats asking for help at each stage and whenever the places were too big to try and look for signs etc. And there are lots of little train staff offices on  every floor in the stations. And train station personnel at every set of turnstiles. So my best advice is : read up for a general idea; and just ask and you'll be pointed to the way to go.

We brought the following two drawings but  found that asking for directions was easier.

And oh yes! We flew there by Singapore Airlines, as always.

Click here to continue on our visit to see the Snow Monkeys.
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