Japan's onsen towns

Hakone is a volcanic area in southwestern Kanagawa, as little as 75 minutes from Shinjuku on the Odakyu Romancecar. Its 'seventeen springs' are spread across the valleys: Hakone-Yumoto by the station is the liveliest, Miyanoshita has the Fujiya Hotel, open since the Meiji era, Sengokuhara is a highland, and on clear days Lake Ashi frames Mt Fuji. One Hakone Freepass covers the mountain railway and ropeway up to steaming Owakudani and a pirate-ship cruise across the lake, so you can do the whole loop in a day. Stay a night if you want a ryokan room with its own open-air bath.

Kinosaki Onsen is in Toyooka in northern Hyogo, near the Sea of Japan — about 2 hr 40 min from Osaka on the JR Limited Express Konotori, or about 2 hr 20–30 min from Kyoto on the Limited Express Kinosaki. The town follows the willow-lined Otani River, with little bridges and old wooden buildings, and the thing to do is put on the yukata and geta your ryokan lends you and make the rounds of the town's traditional seven public bathhouses (sotoyu) — though Sato-no-Yu, by the station, has been closed for rebuilding since April 2024. Guests at local ryokan usually get in free. Snow crab season runs from November to March, when snowy streets are at their most atmospheric. Bath-hopping is best from dusk into the night, so stay over.

Beppu sits on Beppu Bay in Oita, about 2 hours from Hakata (Fukuoka) on the JR Sonic limited express or about 50 minutes by bus from Oita Airport. The city says no hot-spring town in Japan produces more water (2,831 sources, roughly 100,000 litres a minute): steam rises all over town, and its eight onsen districts are known together as the Beppu Hatto. In Kannawa you can tour the steaming 'hells' and cook seafood and vegetables in spring steam; near the station, Takegawara Onsen offers a hot sand bath, and up the hill Myoban is known for its thatched mineral-harvesting huts. Public baths are plentiful and cheap, so stay a night and hop between a few in the evening and early morning.

Yufuin lies in a small basin below the twin peaks of Mt Yufu in Yufu City, Oita — about 2 hr 10–20 min from Hakata (Fukuoka) on the Yufuin no Mori sightseeing express, or an hour by bus from Beppu. A landscape plan caps building heights in the basin, so there is no high-rise onsen strip. The walk from the station along Yunotsubo street to Lake Kinrin passes craft shops, sweet shops and small museums. From late autumn into winter, mist often rises off the lake in the early morning. Day-trippers crowd the street by midday, so stay the night for the quiet morning.

Kurokawa Onsen is tucked into the Tanoharu river valley in the hills north of Aso, in Minamioguni, Kumamoto — about 2 hr 15 min to 3 hr from Fukuoka by direct highway bus. There are some thirty ryokan; the village itself runs along the Tanoharu stream, lined with wooden inns and shops, while a few ryokan sit further out in Oku-Kurokawa and on the Senomoto plateau. In 1986 the town took down some 200 mismatched signs and replaced them with shared, uniform signposts. Its best-known idea is the nyuto tegata: a wooden pass made from thinned Oguni cedar and cypress (¥1,500 for adults) that lets you choose three open-air baths from about 25 ryokan — or two baths plus one food or souvenir stop. Autumn colour and the winter evening lantern light-up are both lovely. Pick a ryokan, stroll at night, and come back for one more soak.