Joshinetsu Kogen

Joshinetsu Kogen National Park was declared in 1949 and occupies a broad band of highlands and volcanoes in central Honshu, spread across the prefectures of Nagano, Gunma and Niigata. Its name combines the abbreviations of the old provinces of Kozuke, Shinano and Echigo, which gives an idea of its extent: it is one of the largest parks in Japan and brings together several distinct volcanic massifs.

The best-known sector is the Shiga Kogen highland, a mosaic of plateaux, lagoons, wetlands and forests between 1,300 and 2,300 metres, which in winter becomes Japan's largest ski area by extent, with eighteen interconnected zones. In 1980 some 13,000 hectares of Shiga Kogen were designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, one of the country's first four; its core and buffer zones overlap with the national park. Within that area lies the crater lake of Mount Shirane, famous for being reputedly the most acidic lake in the world, with a pH of 0.8.

The park's most widely spread image, however, is another: the Japanese macaques of Jigokudani, which come down to bathe in the valley's hot springs in winter, with snow piled on their heads. It is the only known primate population that habitually bathes in hot springs and has become an icon of Japanese wildlife. The park is also home to serow, Japanese black bear and rock ptarmigan at higher altitudes, and to a dense network of traditional onsen scattered through its valleys.