[AUG 14 ONLY] 1-Day Tour: Azumino Fireworks Festival & Snow Monkeys

**PLEASE NOTE – Due to restrictions on the festival due to the continued impact of COVID-19, we are unable to operate this tour in 2022. We hope to offer this tour again in 2023**.

Highlights

• Experience one of Nagano’s most spectacular fireworks display – the Azumino Fireworks Festival – including reserved seating for an uninterrupted view of this spectacular event!
• Visit Nagano’s world-famous Snow Monkey Park – home to the only hot spring-bathing monkeys in the world!
• Enjoy Nagano’s renowned food culture with a late lunch at a nearby restaurant
• Wander the beautiful surroundings of Daio Wasabi Farm and soak in the rural beauty of Azumino

Description

Set against the beautiful Northern Alps, the Azumino Fireworks Festival is one of best events on Nagano’s summer calendar – a spectacular display quickly bringing this picturesque rural locality to ever greater attention! This tour combines reserved seating at the fireworks with a visit to Nagano’s world-famous Snow Monkey Park – home to the only troop of monkeys in the world known to bathe in hot springs – and late lunch at a nearby restaurant. With around 10,000 fireworks lightning-up the summer sky, this is a grand event but on a very local scale!

Your guide will meet you at Nagano Station at 11:00 to 11:10am (the guide will be there from 10:50am) and once all guests have arrived, get the tour started by heading toward the Snow Monkey Park. Accessed via the hot spring village of Kanbayashi Onsen, you will be dropped as close as possible to the park before your guide takes you along the forest trail leading into the park itself (1.6km each way), taking approximately 30 minutes. This beautiful and easy walk builds anticipation before arriving at the park where you will encounter the monkeys – Japanese macaques – and the unique behaviour of soaking in the hot spring. With no barriers between you and the monkeys, you are free to enjoy watching them bathe, play, fed, and endlessly groom each other – remember to bring your camera, you’re going to need it!

From there your guide will take you back along the forest trail and to a nearby restaurant for a well-earned late lunch. Nagano is renowned for its food culture and your guide will be happy to talk all things food as you enjoy a late lunch in a relax atmosphere. Leaving the restaurant your guide will have you board the tour bus and begin your journey toward Azumino. Set against the dramatic background of the Northern Alps, this beautiful rural area is well-known among Japanese and only now coming to the attention of international visitors. First stop is Daio Wasabi Farm, to enjoy (and perhaps be surprised by!) the subtlety of flavour and versality of use for real wasabi. This beautiful farm is as famous for its serene setting – featured in the Kurosawa Akira film ‘Dreams’ – as it is for the peppery flavour of its wasabi. You’ll have the chance to stroll and if so inclined, try wasabi chocolate, ice cream, or even beer!

It’s then time for the main event. Arriving nearby the festival grounds your guide will quickly lead you to your reserved seating and get you comfortable before the first of an estimated 10,000 fireworks bursts into the night sky around 19:00! In the warm summer night you’ll be dazzled as this wonderful display captures the imagination and the crowd reacts to every brilliant burst of light.

The spectacular show will draw to a close around 20:30, after which your guide will have you board the tour bus as quickly as possible, to begin the journey back to JR Nagano Station where the tour has an estimated end time of 22:00 to 22:30*.

*Given the late end time of this tour (after the last shinkansen service), guests should choose accommodation nearby JR Nagano Station.

For guests wanting to include one nights accommodation in Nagano City on August 14th as part of this tour, we will arrange accommodation at Hotel Kokusai 21 (including  drop-off at the hotel and breakfast on Aug. 15th) for a total tour cost of JPY30,500 per adult and JPY23,000 per child.

Should you wish to include accommodation in your tour package, please select the relevant option or contact us.

MEETUP POINTS

The meetup point is inside the station, in front of the Information Board directly across from the Shinkansen ticket gates. Be sure to look for the guide wearing a SNOW MONKEY RESORTS tour tag.

NOTES

Included

• Transportation fee from Nagano to the Snow Monkey Park and Azumino Fireworks Festival
• Snow Monkey Park entrance fee
• Reserved seat (Manpuku seat) at the Azumino Fireworks Festival
• Lunch (vegetarian options are available, please let us know beforehand)
• English-speaking guide

Excluded

• Shinkansen / ‘Bullet Train’ tickets
• Dinner (there are many vendors at the festival so you can choose freely from what is available there)
• Accommodation (unless a tour including accommodation is requested)

Other Information

• Please wear shoes/boots suitable for walking into the monkey park, along an unsealed but well-maintained mountain trail.
• This tour is not wheelchair accessible and may not be suitable for mobility-impaired travellers. Should you have any concerns about your ability to join the tour, please contact us to discuss prior to booking.
• There are a few days in the year that the monkeys might not come down to the park. In such case we will provide an alternative activity.
• Infant (0-5) lunch is not included and the order will be made directly to the restaurant according to your needs.
• This tour has an estimated end time of between 22:30 and 23:00 at JR Nagano Station, after the final shinkansen services. Guests should arrange accommodation nearby the station.This tour has the option of including accommodation upon request.
• The tour application deadline is 5 days before the tour at 17:00.