215 likesGinzan Onsen Now Limits Day-Trippers: Can You Still Visit Without Staying Overnight?
After Ginzan Onsen — the gas-lit Taisho-era hot spring town in Yamagata — began limiting day visitors during the crowded 2024–25 winter, its most-liked comment (215 likes) warned that tourists who ignore the rules will "drive away the decent visitors long before they get bored of the place," and 204 and 198 likes back the restriction outright. The most useful thread for travelers: regulars point out the town was only ever built for overnight guests ("the one public bath aside, day-trippers had almost nowhere to soak," 147 likes), and an actual hotel guest confirms "daytime is wall-to-wall visitors you can barely walk through, but by night it's almost only overnight guests" (5 likes) — plus a Yamagata local's tip to arrive by shinkansen and shuttle bus, not a car, in this deep snow country.