Monkey Onsen at Chikozan Park Zoo in Sayama – The Chikozan Park Zoo opened their Monkey Hot spring for 2017 on November 23rd. It is in the usual monkey enclosure toward the back of the park beside the open space.

Chikozan Monkey Onsen

Chikozan Park Zoo Monkey enclosure

Jigokudani Yaenkoen it may not be, but if you would like to see some monkeys enjoying a hot spring this winter, Chikozan is one of the few places you can in the Greater Tokyo area (on select days). The season is quite long too, as the monkey onsen will run until the end of March. However, you can’t see them everyday of the week. The monkey hot spring is on at weekends and two weekdays each week. The weekdays change week on week. You can see the full schedule here; the monkey with a blue background indicates the days the monkey onsen is running.

Chikozan Monkey Onsen Times

On weekends and public holidays the monkeys will be in the onsen from 11.45 am.

On select weekdays (see schedule linked above) the monkeys will be in the onsen from 1 pm.

They do not provide a finishing time.

Capybara onsen

Chikozan Capybara Onsen January 2016

They also have a capybara onsen, but I was not particularly impressed when I visited it a couple of years ago. The capybara enclosure in Chikozan’s park zoo is quite small and the capybara’s literally climbed into a small tub (pictured above), with their poop floating around it. Apparently the pooping element is normal though as the soothing hot water makes them relieve themselves!

The capybara onsen in Saitama Children’s zoo in Takasaka, Higashimatsuyama is much larger and interesting than Chikozan. And in Higashimatsuyama there is an opportunity to enjoy a foot spa beside the capybara in their onsen.

The Chikozan Park Zoo is only one small area of the park. The park has two playgrounds, fishing, campsite and lots more. You can read about the park in more detail here:

Best of Saitama: Chikozan Park | SAYAMA