Ryokan and onsen · Elsewhere in Japan
8 ryokan and baths with a verified description
Kinosaki · Historic
A ryokan in Kinosaki founded in the Ansei era (1854 to 1860), with a well-kept Japanese garden and kaiseki built around Matsuba crab in winter. From ¥50,000 per person including two meals, and more in crab season between November and March. Two and a half hours by train from Kyoto.
Photo: Nishimuraya Kinosaki Onsen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Gunma · Mixed bath
Four giant baths on a riverbank in the mountains of Gunma, among the most famous in Japan. From ¥25,000 per person including two meals. Three of the baths are mixed, and you wear a bathing gown provided on site, which makes them more comfortable for anyone who does not bathe naked.
Akita · Historic
The oldest ryokan in Nyuto, with thatched wooden huts and a milky white bath outdoors. From ¥20,000 per person including two meals, much cheaper than its looks suggest. There is no central heating in the old rooms, and in winter that is part of the experience.
Yamagata · Winter
One street of hundred-year-old wooden houses on both sides of a stream, lit by gas lamps in the evening. From ¥50,000 per person including two meals, and higher in the snow. Getting there is hard: a train to Oishida and then a bus, and in winter the town is closed to cars. Book six months ahead.
Gunma · Sulfur
The most acidic water among the large onsen towns, with the Yubatake, the hot water field, in the middle of the square. From ¥25,000 per person including two meals. Three hours from Tokyo. There are 13 free public bathhouses there, and that is rare.
Kyushu · Bath pass
An onsen village in the mountains of Kyushu with no neon signs and no concrete buildings, by decision of the community. From ¥25,000 per person including two meals, among the best value in Japan. The feature: a pass for ¥1,500 that lets you enter three baths in three different ryokan, even without staying the night.
Shikoku · Ancient
By tradition the oldest bathhouse in Japan, 3,000 years old, and the building from 1894 is the one that inspired the bathhouse in Spirited Away. From ¥22,000 per person including two meals. Entry to the basic bath in the bathhouse itself, Kami-no-yu on the first floor, costs ¥700 even without staying the night, and it is open 6:00 to 23:00.
Onsen · GALA Yuzawa, Niigata
First return your gear: in the 2025-26 season returns were until 17:45.
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