Is Minakami Onsen Worth It Now? Japanese Visitors on the Empty Strip, the Ruins, and "Some of It Was Self-Inflicted"

What Japanese visitors said — picked from the top 200 of 765 comments

• Hotels built on the assumption of company trips, then turned into ruins when the bubble burst and company trips were cut, Kinugawa is the famous case. In Kusatsu the mayor has worked at it, redeveloping the area around the Yubatake, so guests who used to be kept inside their hotels now go out and spend money in the town, and that seems to have been the big difference.

  社員旅行見込んで作られたホテルがバブル崩壊による社員旅行削減で廃墟化は鬼怒川が有名ですよね。 草津は町長が頑張っていて、湯畑周辺を再開発して、ホテルに囲い込まれていた宿泊客が外出するようになり、外でお金を落とすようになったのが大きいようですね。

  — @kojisenbonzakura6706137 likes

• "Group tours died with the bubble, travel habits changed" has become the standard explanation by now. My impression is that the higher-end ryokan that didn't force through extensions during the bubble have quietly stayed in business to this day.

  もはや「バブル時の団体客の衰退、移動手段の変化」というのが定番化してる⋯ バブルで無理に館内を拡張せずに続けてきたいわゆる高級路線旅館は粛々と現在まで生き残っているイメージ

  — @z.z.z.z25 likes

• I visited Minakami and Kusatsu a year apart and the gap really surprised me. Two famous hot springs in the same prefecture, and they can be this different.

  水上、草津と1年違いで訪れましたがその時はギャップにとても驚きましたね 同じ県の有名な温泉地なのにここまで違うものなのかと

  — @gomazarashi96529 likes

• Among all the videos that poke fun at run-down towns, this one clearly has affection in it, which I liked. I actually split my time between here and Yuzawa, and I take the local line now and then. Unlike the Shinkansen, which is mostly tunnels, the local line gives you the scenery and the feeling of a journey, which I love. I think one cause of the decline is that getting here became so easy that people started coming for the day instead of staying, but the Minakami area has plenty of lovely places and I want to see it busy again. I think it has every chance.

  廃れた街を面白可笑しくいじくり回す動画が多い中、愛情が感じられて非常に好感が持てました。実は湯沢と二拠点生活をしていて時々在来線にも乗りますが、ほとんどトンネルの新幹線と違って在来線は景色を見ながらの旅感もあって私は好きです。便利になり過ぎて日帰りが多くなり宿泊客が減少したのが衰退の要因の一つだと思いますが、水上エリアは魅力的な場所が沢山あるのでまた賑わを取り戻して欲しいですね。可能性は十分有ると思います！

  — @INAPOWDER33 likes

• Hotel Juraku's bread is famous, isn't it. They argued over whether to put the Shinkansen station in Minakami or Numata, ended up building it halfway between the two, and both of them went down in flames lol

  ホテル聚楽のパンは有名ですよね。 新幹線は駅を水上に作るか沼田に作るかで揉めて、中間に作ってしまって、両方爆死しましたｗ

  — @koni888911 likes

• Straight out of high school I took a job at a hotel in Minakami Onsen and spent four and a half years in that town. So this is what it's like now. It's where I met my wife. Maybe the two of us should go back.

  高校卒業後、水上温泉のホテルに就職して４年半過ごした街。今、こんな状況になってるんだ。女房と出会ったところなんだよな。今度二人で行ってみようかな。

  — @佐次秀明104 likes

• I stopped by on the train for the first time in thirty-odd years, only the area by the station, and I was shocked at how run-down it was, with no new buildings at all. Rail fans love nearby Doai as a "mole station", but that doesn't put money into the town. The Tanigawa-dake ropeway is famous, but the view looking up at the range from Ichinokura-sawa is several notches better, the angle you see on the posters. It's a shame that most people who come to Minakami go home without seeing it.

  三十数年ぶりに列車で立ち寄りました(駅前だけ)が、新しい建物が無く余りの寂れた状態に驚きました。 鉄道ファンには近くの土合駅が"モグラ駅"として人気ですが街にお金は落ちませんね。　　 　谷川岳のロープウェイは有名ですが、その景色より 一ノ倉沢 から見上げる谷川連峰の方が数段上の絶景(ポスターなどで使用されるアングル)。ですが、水上に行く殆どの人が観ないで帰っているのは残念。 　 　で、谷川岳で遭難した方の名を刻む慰霊碑に、これから亡くなる方の分の充分な 余白 があったのを観て衝撃を受けたのを思い出しました。

  — @operamathis29359 likes

• Gunma resident here. Thank you for covering Minakami Onsen. We stayed as a family when I was small. I came off Tanigawa-dake on Saturday 16 August and got to the front of Minakami station around 16:30, and exactly one shop was open. I'd wanted to buy souvenirs. I saw the steam train from a distance. Rooting for Minakami.

  群馬県民。水上温泉を取り上げていただきありがとうございます。幼い頃は家族で宿泊しました。７年８月16日(土)に谷川岳登山を終えて、16時半頃に水上駅前に行くと開いている店は１件だけでした。お土産を買いたかったのですが…。遠くからSL見ました。水上、応援しています。

  — @235zj45281 likes

• A few years ago I stayed at a ryokan in Minakami with my family and it was lovely. Honestly, until I watched this video I had no idea anyone thought the place was run-down.

  数年前に家族と水上の旅館に泊まったがとても良いところだった。なんならこの動画を見るまでは寂れてるなんて全然知らなかった。

  — @misosava124536 likes

• I've been to Minakami Onsen several times, and it's a place of extremes. The genuinely old inns that have been running for decades have plenty of regulars and you can have a really good stay. It's just that they can keep going precisely because they are small. The ones that ended up as ruins are the places that went hotel-scale on the back of the bubble and the onsen boom. Which also means those older inns can be had a bit cheaper if you go outside the peak dates, so they may well be a bargain.

  水上温泉は何度か行ったことありますが、極端なんですよね。 本当に昔から営業している老舗宿は固定客も多いので、すごいいい思い出を作ることができます。ただ、やはり規模が小さいが故に営業できているという感じ。 で、廃墟とかになっているのはやはりバブル以降から始まって温泉ブームに乗ってホテル化したところですね。 逆に言うと、上記に書いたようなような旅館もピークを外せば少々安めで宿泊できるのはお得かもしれないです。

  — @mi-yr3mm47 likes

• I stayed at Minakami Juraku last year. The place was full. It isn't a luxury hotel, but you can see the thought that has gone into making guests comfortable everywhere you look, and I came away with a very good impression. Travelling by train with your luggage is hard work, and as you explained in the video, everything is taken care of inside the hotel, which made me understand why the area in front of the station is so deserted. I do hope the hotels and the shopping street can find a way to work together.

  みなかみじゅらく、去年泊まりました！ お客さん満杯でした。 豪華なホテルではないのですがそこかしこにお客さんを快適にもてなそうとする工夫がされているのがわかりとても好感を持ちました。 電車で荷物を持ちながら旅行に行くのって大変ですし、主さんが解説されていたようにホテルの中で全てが済んでしまうので駅前が閑散としてしまう理由がわかりました。 ホテルと駅前商店街、何とか手を取り合って上手く融合できるといいのですが…。

  — @blueskybluesea159 likes

• If anything this looks like somewhere you could actually relax. Atami, Kamakura, Hakone and the rest are so packed it's like the morning rush hour, and they're hard to get to even by car.

  逆にこっちの方がまったり過ごせそうです。熱海、鎌倉、箱根とか人混みが激しくて朝の通勤ラッシュみたいで車でも行き辛い。。。

  — @lap2hackberry39667 likes

• A big part of it is that the Shinkansen station, Jomo-Kogen, was built over towards Gokan on the local line, so Minakami Onsen stopped being a hot spring you could reach door to door without thinking about it. The other big factor is that when the bubble burst, custom flowed to the places nearby that sell the scenery around them, Sarugakyo Onsen, Tanigawa Onsen, Hoshi Onsen and so on.

  新幹線の上毛高原駅が在来線の後閑駅よりに出来たために、水上温泉は気楽にドア・ツー・ドアで行ける温泉地でなくなってしまったのが大きい。 あとバブルの崩壊で周囲の風光明媚な自然を売りにする猿ヶ京温泉、谷川温泉、法師温泉などに客足が流れたのも大きい。

  — @hylandscape5 likes

• When I lived in Gunma my parents often took me to Minakami Onsen, but once they got older and stopped driving, we did stop going. Left to myself I always end up going to Kusatsu instead. I often stop at Onogami Onsen on the way to Kusatsu too.

  群馬に住んでた時親がよく水上温泉連れて行ってくれましたが、 年を取り運転しなくなると確かに行かなくなりましたね。 自分で行くとどうしても草津とか行ってしまいます。 草津に行く途中の小野上温泉もよく入りますね。

  — @senfox320031 likes

• Minakami is close to Tokyo so I go every year! I sit by the river doing nothing, and in winter I take the ropeway up to Tenjindaira and play in the snow. It's precisely because there aren't many people that you can enjoy the nature properly.

  水上は都内からも近いので毎年行ってます！ 川でぼーっとしたり、冬は天神平までロープウェイで行って雪で遊んだり、あまり人がいないからこそ自然を満喫して楽しんでいます！

  — @宮野彩希-h1x4 likes

• I've been there several times for work. A big roadside station, bungee jumping off the bridge, drone lessons, dam curry, my impression is of a hot spring town that still has the will to try. If I get some free time I'd like to go back on my own account.

  仕事で何度か行った事があります。 大きな道の駅に橋の上ではバンジージャンプ、ドローン教室にダムカレーとまだまだ頑張る意志がある温泉地って印象を持ってます。 暇があれば個人でまた行ってみたいです。

  — @大内孝裕14 likes

• 9:38 Speaking as someone who lives nearby, I wish you'd used the name Mizukikoukan and shown the piles of local vegetables and souvenirs they sell. Head out of there and keep going up into the hills and you get to garba, which does baumkuchen, and towards the built-up side there's the tart place, Jack the Tart Fantasy. Both of them have celebrity autographs crammed all over the walls.

  9:38 どうせなら『水紀行館』っていう名称と、 大量に地元野菜と土産物が売っているところも映してほしかったと思う近所民。 ここを出て山の中にどんどん進んでいくとバウムクーヘンの「garba」、 市街地へ向かっていくとタルトの「JACK THE TART FANTASY」があります。 どちらも有名人のサインが所狭しと展示されてますよ。

  — @あそびです12 likes

• It's true that there's really nothing around Minakami. The appeal is the nicely retro hot spring inns and hiking, about that much. Near Minakami station my recommendation is a restaurant called Daruma that does seafood bowls and tuna bowls at lunch. The huge portions and the taste are both top class. The pickles the elderly owner makes were superb. A place I'd go back to whenever I'm in Minakami.

  水上周辺は本当に何にも無いは事実。レトロな感じの良い温泉旅館とか登山するくらいが魅力ポイント。 水上駅周辺でお勧めはランチで海鮮丼やマグロ丼を出しているダルマという飲食店。 大盛りのボリュームも美味しさも最高です。 老年の店主が漬けた漬物は絶品でした。 水上に来たらまた訪れたいお店

  — @ドンタコス-q8l5 likes

• SaveMinakami Hotel Juraku↗みなかみホテルジュラクMinakami Onsen, Gunma

  The inn people in the thread actually stayed at: full when one guest went last year, and not luxurious but visibly trying to make guests comfortable (9 likes). Another visitor comes back every week and rates the staff, the food and the rooms. Its bakery used to be a local landmark (11 likes).

• SaveOoedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Matsunoi↗大江戸温泉物語Premium 松乃井Minakami Onsen, Gunma

  The big inn at the centre of the redevelopment, named in the thread as the one taking over the cleared hotel sites. It reopened on 7 August 2026 under the Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium brand after a refit of the old Gensen Yu no Yado Matsunoi.

  Sources: prtimes.jp — checked 2026-08-22

• SaveMichi-no-Eki Minakami Mizukikoukan↗道の駅みなかみ水紀行館Minakami, Gunma

  The part of town that is busy. A near-resident wishes the video had shown the produce and souvenirs sold here (12 likes), and another visitor lists the roadside station, the bridge bungee and dam curry as proof the town is still trying (14 likes).

• SaveTanigawadake Ropeway (Tenjindaira)↗谷川岳ロープウェイ・天神平Minakami, Gunma

  What one repeat visitor comes for every year, along with sitting by the river: the ropeway up to Tenjindaira for snow in winter, enjoyable precisely because there are few people (4 likes).

• SaveDoai Station↗土合駅Minakami, Gunma

  Popular with rail fans as Japan's "mole station", 462 steps down to a platform about 70m under the mountain. One visitor's dry note: the fame does not put money into the town (9 likes).

  Sources: gunma-kanko.jp — checked 2026-08-22

• SaveDaruma↗だるまNear Minakami Station, Gunma

  The one restaurant near the station the thread names: seafood and tuna bowls at lunch, big portions, and pickles made by the elderly owner (5 likes).

• Savegarba↗garba（ガルバ）Minakami, Gunma

  A baumkuchen shop up in the hills past the roadside station, named by a near-resident along with a tart shop in town (12 likes).

• SaveJack the Tart Fantasy↗ジャック・ザ・タルトファンタジーMinakami, Gunma

  The tart shop in the same recommendation, towards the built-up side of town (12 likes). Both places, the commenter says, are covered in signed celebrity boards.

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 Minakami Onsen worth visiting now?

Yes, if quiet is what you want and you are not expecting an evening strip. Visitors who go say it is the opposite of Atami, Kamakura and Hakone, where the crowds feel like a commute (67 likes), the older family-run inns are still good and are cheaper if you dodge the peaks (47 likes), and one family who stayed had no idea the town was considered run-down (36 likes). Plan food and souvenirs early: a Gunma resident coming off Tanigawa-dake found exactly one shop open in front of Minakami station at 16:30 (1 like).

Why is Minakami Onsen full of abandoned hotels?

Japanese visitors give three overlapping reasons. The bubble-era hotels were built for company group trips and those stopped (683 likes). Those same hotels kept guests inside for meals, drinks and souvenirs, so the shopping street lost its customers (9 likes). And the Joetsu Shinkansen station, Jomo-Kogen, was built away from the hot spring itself, which cost Minakami its door-to-door convenience and sent guests to smaller spa villages nearby (5 likes). The nearest Shinkansen stop is about 20 minutes from the onsen by local bus.

Sources: mizunofurusato.com · kan-etsu.net — checked 2026-08-22

Are the ruined hotels being cleared away?

Slowly, and by design rather than demolition. The town, the University of Tokyo, Gunma Bank and Open House Group signed an agreement in September 2021 to regenerate the strip, and the former Ichiyotei, once seven storeys, was cut down to between one and five storeys by December 2024 and opened to the public at a market weekend in October 2025. Separately, the large inn Matsunoi reopened on 7 August 2026 as Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Matsunoi after a refit.

Sources: prtimes.jp · minakami-haikyo-saisei.com · jomo-news.co.jp · prtimes.jp — checked 2026-08-22

How do you get to Minakami from Tokyo, and what is there to do?

Take the Joetsu Shinkansen to Jomo-Kogen and a Kan-etsu Kotsu bus into the valley, or the JR Joetsu Line to Minakami station. What visitors actually name is outdoors, not the strip: the Tone river and rafting, the ropeway up to Tenjindaira on Tanigawa-dake, and the roadside station with its local produce (12 likes). Rail fans get off two stops further up at Doai, where 462 steps lead down to a platform about 70m underground.

Sources: kan-etsu.net · mizunofurusato.com · gunma-kanko.jp — checked 2026-08-22