The smell of sulfur gradually seeps through the air, and steam rises up beyond the trees in Jigokudani snow monkey park. Located in a valley of the Yokoyu River in northern Nagano Prefecture, 267 km northwest of Tokyo, literally, the name means “Hell Valley”.
Looking to stretch our legs on a recent trip to Hakuba, we weighed up the options available to us in October (hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting) and settled on the Happo One ‘Nature Trail’ hike. There, we’d...