"The Ruins Have Become the Icon of the Place": What Japanese Visitors Say About Kinugawa Onsen's Abandoned Hotels

What Japanese visitors said — picked from the top 157 of 175 comments

• It's a surprise that visitor numbers have gone from 850,000 to 1.1 million, but it's good news!

  客足が85万人→110万人に増えているのは意外ですが嬉しいですね！

  — @あなぱっかMost liked67 likes

• I watched your last Kinugawa video and made the trip partly to show support. The inn was doing a brisk trade, which was a relief, and I went round the places nearby and had a good time. I'll go again when I get the chance. As someone who loves onsen and travels around for them, I hope the hot spring towns that are struggling all over Japan find a way through and hold on.

  前回の鬼怒川編を拝見し応援の気持ちも込めて鬼怒川旅行しました。宿泊宿盛況で少し安心しましたし、周辺の施設等訪問して楽しい時間を過ごせました。また機会を見て伺おうと思っています。温泉好きであちこち行く身としては、苦境にある全国の温泉地がなんとか活路を見いだし持ち堪えてほしいと願っています。

  — @kitakubu884 likes

• I went and stayed at Kinugawa Onsen and it was pretty good 😊 I just wish there were a few more places to snack at and a few more souvenir shops along the ryokan street, that would make it more fun!

  鬼怒川温泉泊まり行ったけど けっこう良かったです😊 ただもう少し旅館街に食べ歩きできるとこやお土産屋さんとか 増やしてもらえるともっと楽しい！

  — @k.y45458 likes

• 8:43 In 2019 it was just under 1.4 million, so isn't it actually down?

  8:43 2019年が140万人弱だったので、むしろ減ってるのでは

  — @nobnak19803 likes

• So while some people mind the ruins, there's also a certain number of people who come and stay here precisely because the ruins are here...

  廃墟を気にする人がいる一方で、廃墟があるが故にここに泊まりに来る層も一定数いるんだなー…

  — @そうね-w1x17 likes

• Scary that break-ins seem to be on the rise. Ruins are easy material for a video, so plenty of people try to film inside, and hardly any of them got permission. I actually respect that the inside never appeared in this video.

  不法侵入が増えてるようで怖いな 廃墟は動画ネタにしやすいから内部を撮ろうとする人も多いけど、許可をとった人なんてほぼいないよな 最後まで内部が映らなかったことにむしろ好感が持てるよ

  — @Wiiaretheworld61 likes

• My family has a holiday place in Nikko so I stop by Kinugawa too, and the problem here isn't people breaking in, it's illegal dumping. At one point industrial waste contractors had dumped so much that the parking lot was piled with rubbish.

  実家の別荘が日光にあるので鬼怒川にも寄りますが、ここは不法侵入ではなく、不法投棄が問題になっています。かつては産廃業者による不法投棄で駐車場にゴミが山積みになっていました。

  — @サンドローネ-ft766 likes

• This came up in my recommendations. It's the way of things. The abandoned spots are pretty bleak, and they're almost exactly as they were three years ago. What struck me was how much the trees have grown. If a ruin collapses into the river there's glass in it, and heavy rain would carry the pieces downstream. But demolishing it isn't possible either. It felt like a problem lurking all over Japan.

  おすすめで出てきたので視聴しました。時代の流れですね。 廃墟となった場所、かなり寂しいですが、３年前とほぼそのまま。ただ、木々が伸びているのが印象的でした。 廃墟が川に崩落したらガラスもあるし、大雨で破片が流れたら下流にも影響が出る。 かと言って解体もできない。日本のあちこちに潜む問題だと思いました。

  — @まんばーず13 likes

• Ruins of asbestos-laden hotels built right beside the Kinugawa, which is a Class A river. You'd have to divert the river artificially first, and the construction cost goes through the roof.

  一級河川である鬼怒川の傍に建築されたアスベスト入りホテルの廃墟 川を人工的に一旦迂回させないと難しい(工事費うなぎのぼり)

  — @イーグル-q8t8 likes

• The ideal would be private companies rebuilding on the sites of the ruins and life coming back to the hot spring town, but even if the recovery keeps up at this pace it looks like it would take more than 50 years.

  一番の理想は 廃墟群の建替えが民間企業によって行われて 再び温泉街の活気が戻る事だけど このペースで順調に回復していったとしても あと50年以上はかかりそう

  — @abcdef-ot3gp11 likes

• I gather the ruins have become a tourism asset in a way, so I doubt there'll be any "tear them all down" moment. The budget wouldn't stretch to it either. Incidentally, the hotel I stayed at before was only operating part of the building, so partway along a corridor the lights stopped and there were cobwebs.

  廃墟も観光資産になっている面もあるそうなので一声取り壊しみたいなことは無いと思われます。 予算的にも厳しいでしょうし。 因みに以前止まったホテルは一部だけで営業していて通路の途中で照明がついていなくなったり、蜘蛛の巣があったりしてました。

  — @白石北斗-v1b10 likes

• I went in August. I crossed the bridge from the opening twice. I love heights, so the view was great and it felt good. That said, the steps up to the bridge from the road have grass poking out from both sides and the insects were rough. Also there's no footpath on the road in front of the ruins (the footpath only runs a little way from Kinugawa-Kōen station), and while the traffic isn't heavy, the cars that do pass go pretty fast, which was frightening.

  ８月に行きました。冒頭の橋は2度渡りました。高所大好き症の自分にとっては景色も良くて気持ちよかったです。但し、道路から橋に行くまでの階段は、両側からはみ出している草と虫が厳しかった。それと、廃墟前の道路に歩道がなく（歩道があるのは鬼怒川公園駅から少しだけ）、交通量は多くないのですが、通る車が割とスピードを出していて怖かった。

  — @miurayaryutarou698010 likes

• The thing about Kinugawa Onsen is that there isn't much free-flowing spring water. It's convenient by train, so that's a shame.

  鬼怒川温泉て、源泉かけ流しが少ないのよね。 電車で便利なんだけど残念。

  — @ひらのり-z5y6 likes

• It isn't zero, but foreign visitors don't really come to Kinugawa Onsen. Foreigners go for Nikko, and around Lake Chuzenji in winter there are so many of them that you hardly hear any Japanese.

  鬼怒川温泉にはゼロではありませんが、そこまで外国人は来ないんですよ 外国人には日光が人気で、冬の中禅寺湖周辺は日本語が聞こえないくらい外国人が多いです

  — @joek73422 likes

• You can see the row of ruins from the train window on the Tobu Kinugawa line between Kinugawa-Onsen and Kinugawa-Kōen as well, and this place hasn't changed in 10, no, 20 years. Well, one of them was demolished about five years ago, but the rest are exactly as they were. They should at least clear the ruins along the railway, otherwise the image of Kinugawa Onsen as a whole suffers and visitors just stop coming. Every time I go back to my family home in Aizu and see this row of ruins I feel gloomy 😰

  東武鬼怒川線の鬼怒川温泉駅〜鬼怒川公園駅間の車窓からも廃墟群が見えるんだが、10年、いや20年もここは変わっていない。 まぁ、一応5年くらい前に一つだけ解体されたがあとは相変わらずそのまま。 鉄道沿線くらい廃墟を全部撤去しないと鬼怒川温泉全体のイメージが悪くなり観光客も来なくなるぁけなのに。 実家のある会津に帰省する度にこの廃墟群を見るたびに陰鬱ない気持ちになる😰

  — @tamiya23451 likes

• It must have helped that the ruins are on the east side, and not where the center of the town is now. I think Kinugawa Onsen itself is heading in a good direction.

  廃墟が東側で、かつ、今の中心とは違う点が良かったんでしょうね。鬼怒川温泉自体はいい方向に向かうと思います。

  — @トシノスケトキワノ5 likes

• Quite a few foreigners come to Kinugawa because you can hike there. The station side, on the near bank, seems to be doing all right, but the other side has poor transport links and isn't very lively (that's where the ruins are). Personally I find it lively enough, I've been several times and enjoyed it.

  鬼怒川はトレッキングできるのか割と外国人が多いのよな。 川の手前の駅側はそれなりにやってそうだけど、向こう側は交通の便も悪いしあんま賑わってない（廃墟はこっち）感じ。 個人的にそれなりな賑わいなので何度か行って楽しんでるけど。

  — @tomoe-san0 likes

• I'd like to go to the Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Kinugawa Kanko Hotel or TAOYA Kawaji and enjoy that other-world feeling Kinugawa Onsen has.

  大江戸温泉物語premium鬼怒川観光ホテルやTAOYA川治に行って、鬼怒川温泉の異世界を楽しんでみたいです。

  — @isaoabe6010 likes

• SaveOoedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Kinugawa Kanko Hotel↗大江戸温泉物語Premium 鬼怒川観光ホテルKinugawa Onsen, Nikko

  One of the two hotels named when the thread turns from ruins to actually staying here (10 likes).

• SaveTAOYA Kawaji↗TAOYA川治Kawaji Onsen, Nikko

  The other name in the same comment (10 likes). It is in Kawaji Onsen, further up the same valley from Kinugawa.

• SaveKinugawa-Kōen Station↗鬼怒川公園駅Nikko, Tochigi

  The quiet end of the town. The ruins line the stretch between here and Kinugawa-Onsen station and can be seen from the train (1 like), and a visitor who walked it in August warns there is no footpath along the road in front of them (10 likes). The municipal day bath next to the station, Kinugawa Koen Iwaburo, closed on 31 March 2024.

  Sources: city.nikko.lg.jp — checked 2026-08-21

Named in the source comments. Where a note gives a price, opening status or rule, we checked it against the linked source on the date shown — everything else is what the comments said. All of it can change; check the map listing before you go.

Is Kinugawa Onsen worth visiting when it is full of abandoned hotels?

Yes, as long as you know the layout. The derelict blocks are concentrated on the far side of the river, away from where the center of the town is now (5 likes), and a viewer who travelled there after the previous video found the inn busy (4 likes). The gripes that come back are ordinary ones: not much to snack on or browse along the ryokan street (8 likes), and not many free-flowing spring baths (6 likes).

How many people still stay at Kinugawa Onsen?

1,095,596 overnight guests stayed in the Kinugawa and Kawaji onsen area in 2024, 73,666 more than the previous year and a second straight year above a million. Foreign guests came to 53,846, the first time the local survey has recorded more than 50,000. One viewer supplies the fair counterweight: the 2019 figure was close to 1.4 million, so this is a recovery rather than a boom (3 likes).

Sources: shimotsuke.co.jp · pref.tochigi.lg.jp — checked 2026-08-21

Can you go inside the abandoned hotels at Kinugawa Onsen?

No, and Japanese viewers are blunt about it. Ruins are easy material for a video, so people try to film inside and hardly any of them have permission (61 likes), and that is the thing this audience worries about most. A viewer with family in Nikko adds that the bigger local problem is illegal dumping in the parking lots (66 likes). The row is visible from the Tobu Kinugawa line between Kinugawa-Onsen and Kinugawa-Kōen stations (1 like), which is how most people look at it.

Where do people stay, and can you just soak for the day?

Two hotels get named: Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Kinugawa Kanko Hotel, and TAOYA Kawaji in the next valley (10 likes). Two practical notes from people who have stayed: one hotel was running only part of its building, so the corridor lights stopped partway (10 likes), and the town's public day bath beside Kinugawa-Kōen station, Kinugawa Koen Iwaburo, closed on 31 March 2024 because the building had aged out, so day visitors now depend on hotel baths.

Sources: city.nikko.lg.jp · nikko-kankou.org — checked 2026-08-21