Kurokawa Onsen

A hot-spring village in the Kumamoto highlands where two dozen inns share their baths with day visitors.

MaedaAkihiko

Bathing: Indoor / Outdoor
Admission from: 1500
Accommodation: Hotel on site

Kurokawa Onsen sits in a wooded gorge of the Aso region in Kumamoto Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu. Rather than a single bathhouse, the village is a collection of small ryokan whose outdoor baths line the Tanoharu river; wooden signage, earth-toned plaster and a deliberate absence of neon are the result of a decades-long village agreement on how Kurokawa should look.

Balnevia view

Why visit

A nyūtō tegata wooden bath pass lets visitors bathe at three of the participating inns, so a single afternoon can move between a riverside rock pool, a cave bath and a cedar-lined tub. Waters differ from inn to inn, which is unusual even by Japanese standards.