Which onsen towns do Japanese commenters say are worth a night?

In these roundups the clear "go" verdicts are Atami (its comeback, and the advice to move on to Ito or Izu-Kogen if you want quiet), Shima Onsen (gentler water than Kusatsu, and easier to book than Ginzan) and Gero Onsen (the station-front baths one Hida train from Nagoya or Osaka, chosen for the geography more than the water). The famous names are not dismissed; they are judged on crowds and on whether the town has anything after dark.

Why are so many Japanese onsen towns half empty?

Two reasons come up again and again in the comments: expressways and faster trains turned overnight resorts into day trips, and the big group-tour ryokan of the 1980s and 90s never adapted to solo travelers and couples. The buildings they left behind are what visitors photograph; the water in the surviving inns is usually unchanged.

Where do these come from?

From the comment sections of Japanese YouTube videos — food crawls, hidden-gem tours, honest reviews. We quote real comments only, show the actual like counts at the time of collection, and link back to the source video.

How accurate are the translations?

Each quote keeps the original Japanese alongside the English. We adapt slang so it reads naturally, but we never change the meaning or invent comments.

Dossier

Onsen in Japan: What Japanese Bathers Say

温泉

Twenty roundups, 7,300 comments between them, and the question Japanese bathers keep answering is not "which onsen is best" but "which towns still work". The most-liked comment in the set (905 likes) is a Wakayama native explaining why Shirahama empties out: the expressway turned it into a day trip, and the gap between the hotels that fill and the ones that don't keeps widening. The runner-up (683 likes) blames the shuttered ryokan districts on decades of turning away solo guests and couples. Where the verdicts land: 4 roundups say go, 9 are split, none is a flat skip. The split ones are mostly the resort towns with abandoned hotels on the skyline (Kinugawa, Minakami, Ikaho, Atagawa, Shirahama, Kaga, Zao and Yugawara), where the water still works and the streets don't. Yugawara is the clearest case of what that leaves you: one stop before Atami on the same line, and the pattern visitors describe is to spend the day in Atami and come back to Yugawara to sleep. The newest question is what to do about dinner: on a news report about Arima guests booking room-only stays, the most-liked reply (118 likes) keeps dinner at the inn because eating out costs more, while another near the top (94 likes) would rather book breakfast only. The newest entry is the hardest case of all: Wakura Onsen in Noto, two years after the earthquake, where a man who says he lives there (24 likes) writes that more of the inns still have not reopened and the roads are still patchy, and then asks people to come anyway.

20 roundups · 20 source videos · 370 comments translated · 19,988 likes on them

The videos hold 7,300 comments in total; we read the top 3,085 of each and translated the ones that shaped the consensus.

Tracking since Jul 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 23, 2026

Verdict across 13 roundups4 say go9 split

The most-liked comments about Onsen (Japanese Hot Springs)

Ranked by real like counts across every roundup. Each one links to the article it came from.

I'm from Wakayama, and I tell people that if you're going for a day out the south is fine, but honestly it's also that you can get home without staying, and there's quite a gap between the hotels that get people in and the ones that don't... As for Adventure World, even without pandas there are penguins in an ordinary pool right inside the entrance and all sorts of things, so there's plenty to see.
和歌山県民ですが、遊びに行くなら南でいいよって言いますがぶっちゃけ泊まらなくて帰れるのもありますが、割と人の入るホテルと入らないホテルの差がね… あとアドベンチャーワールドはパンダ居なくても入ってすぐペンギンが普通の水場に居たり色々あって全然見どころあります。
— @キタ·ヤマト905 likes
From: "For a Day Out the South Is Fine, But You Can Get Home Without Staying": What Japanese Visitors Say About Shirahama After the Pandas Left
There were outside forces, sure, but some of it was self-inflicted. Faking the hot spring water was bad enough, but before that, the places built for group bookings looked right down on solo guests and couples. Ryokan districts with tennis courts and soccer pitches like a school club camp, you'd ring up and say it's just me, and they'd sound thoroughly put out and tell you they were full for the entire season, or grumble on your way out that one guest doesn't cover their costs. I think it was the same picture all over the country, before covid. So when those same places started saying please help us because of covid, honestly, I thought: serves you right. Hotels and ryokan that don't look after women traveling together, solo guests and elderly couples can go under for all I care. That's my honest feeling.
外的要因もあるんだろうけど、自業自得のところもあるんだよ。温泉偽装とかはまずいが、それ以前に団体様がくるところって1人とか夫婦客をすごい見下すところがあって以前学校のクラブ活動みたいなテニスコートやサッカー施設を持ってるような旅館街なんかさ、1人ですけどありますか？って聞いたらすげー嫌そうにずーっと満室ですっていわれたりとか、帰りがけに1人で来られると採算合わない的な文句垂れられたりするところあって、全国的に同じような状況だったと思うよ。コロナの前は。それがコロナで助けてくださいって言ってるようなところ、正直ザマァ見ろって思ってる。女子旅、おひとり様、老夫婦大事にしないホテル旅館は消えてもらいたいね。正直な気持ち書いてみました。
— @sogatty683 likes
From: Is Minakami Onsen Worth It Now? Japanese Visitors on the Empty Strip, the Ruins, and "Some of It Was Self-Inflicted"
Adventure World is plenty of fun even without pandas. Good to see the figures bear that out. It was a facility of global importance for panda research, so my feelings are mixed, but maybe the panda rental fees are money saved.
アドベンチャーワールドはパンダいなくても充分楽しいですからね。数字にも出てて安心しました。パンダ研究に注力してた世界的にも重要な施設なので複雑な気持ちでもありますが、パンダのレンタル代が浮いたかもしれないです。
— @Nouyhjjk680 likes
From: "For a Day Out the South Is Fine, But You Can Get Home Without Staying": What Japanese Visitors Say About Shirahama After the Pandas Left
There were already loads of abandoned hotels back when the pandas were here Honestly the other factors are bigger
パンダが居た頃から廃ホテルとかは沢山あったからなぁ正直それ以外の要因も大きい
— @addone125650 likes
From: "For a Day Out the South Is Fine, But You Can Get Home Without Staying": What Japanese Visitors Say About Shirahama After the Pandas Left
Getting around got more convenient, and hotel popularity went to the extremes too. Adventure World is a genuinely attractive place even without pandas! I'll go again.
移動手段が便利になってホテルも人気が極端になったのもありますね、アドベンチャーワールドはパンダが無くても本当魅力的な施設ですし！また行きます。
— @kaito3227534 likes
From: "For a Day Out the South Is Fine, But You Can Get Home Without Staying": What Japanese Visitors Say About Shirahama After the Pandas Left
One point the video doesn't raise... The opening of the expressway probably cut demand for overnight stays a lot too. Nowadays it's doable as a day trip...
本動画で挙げられていない点を挙げると… 高速道路の開通で、宿泊需要が減少したのも大きいかも。今や日帰り旅行出来てしまうので…
— @hoshimai8546501 likes
From: "For a Day Out the South Is Fine, But You Can Get Home Without Staying": What Japanese Visitors Say About Shirahama After the Pandas Left
Basically it's a space for drying the towels and things you used in the bath.
大体風呂で使ったタオルなどを干すスペース
— @SuzuDX470 likes
From: "I Never Even Knew It Had a Name": What the Chairs by the Window in Your Ryokan Room Are Actually For
I work at a ryokan in Ikaho Onsen. You've researched Ikaho well, and the video explains both the good things about it and the parts that are hard to hear for those of us on the ground. Let me add a few things, if I may. First, the water. The Golden Water is the old brown, cloudy water, and it warms you right through. The Silver Water, found in the Heisei era, is a colorless, transparent cold mineral spring; it is distributed to each ryokan and heated before it goes into the baths, and its soft quality is said to be good for the skin. And the remarkable part is that these two completely different waters rise from almost the same spot on the mountain behind Ikaho Shrine. The Golden Water is still governed by the komaguchi system, where the share is set by the width of the pipe, decided long ago, and it reflects the inherited rights of the old houses rather than the size of the business. Using more of it doesn't make your monthly charge rise in proportion either. So the old ryokan near the source use plenty of Golden Water whatever their size, and many of them don't use the Silver Water at all. Buying a new right to the Golden Water means paying a rights holder a very large sum, and mostly they won't sell in the first place, and the volume you get is small. The Silver Water, by contrast, is managed by Shibukawa City, which Ikaho belongs to, and you pay for what you use, so everyone can draw on it on equal terms. As for the newer ryokan away from the stone stairway, some cover everything with the Silver Water, and some have talked a rights holder into selling, laid a new pipe and now hold Golden Water of their own, less than the old houses but theirs. Most of those use the Silver Water alongside it to make up the volume they need. What you see a lot of lately is the big communal baths running both, and the open-air baths attached to guest rooms running Silver. For room baths the Silver Water is especially prized, because it's less likely to leave you light-headed and is safe for children, and because it throws off little mineral sediment, which makes it easier for guests to use and easier for the ryokan to run. On the stone stairway: until fairly recently there were a lot of group tours, so each ryokan kept its guests in with its own shop and its own evening dining, and the town emptied out little by little. There are still plenty of empty shops and empty ryokan, but new places have opened around the stairway, more guests walk it and more people come up just for the day, and a good deal of life has come back. Sorry for the length. Please do come to Ikaho at least once, whether you stay the night or come for the day.
伊香保温泉の旅館で働いている者です。伊香保温泉についてよく調べられ、伊香保温泉について良いところも、現地の人間からすると耳が痛いところも分かりやすく解説されている動画でした。勝手に情報を追加致します。まず温泉の説明について、黄金の湯は古くからある茶色く濁った湯で、身体がよく温まります。一方、平成に発見された白銀の湯は無色透明の冷鉱泉で、各旅館に配られたのちに加温して提供されているもので、柔らかい泉質で肌に良いとされています。そして驚くべきことに、この二つの全く異なる泉質の源泉は、ともに伊香保神社の奥にある山の、ほとんど似たような場所から湧出しております。黄金の湯は相変わらず小間口制度により、旅館の経営規模というよりもむしろ老舗の既得権として、温泉管の太さによって昔から配分が決められております。そしてこれを多く使ったからといって、比例して毎月使用料が増えるものでもありません。そのため、源泉近くに古くからある旅館はその規模に関わらず黄金の湯を豊富に使用し、白銀の湯は使わないというところも多いです。黄金の湯の権利を新たに買い取るには非常に高い金額を小間口権者に支払う必要があり(そもそも中々売ってもらえない)、得られる量も少ないです。一方で白銀の湯については伊香保温泉がある渋川市が管理しており、使用量に応じて代金を支払うことで公平に使える形になっています。石段街から離れた比較的新しい旅館はというと、白銀の湯により全ての温泉を賄っているところもあれば、小間口権者と話をつけ権利を買い取ることで温泉管を新設し、老舗に比べれば少ない量ではありながらも黄金の湯を所有している旅館もあります。その上で白銀も併用して、全体として必要な湯量を確保して運用している所が多いです。最近よく見られるのは、大浴場は黄金白銀の併用、露天風呂付き客室に置くのは白銀、といった使われ方です。特に客室の露天風呂について、白銀の湯は湯あたりしにくくお子様にも安心であることや、湯の花が少ないことでお客様にも使いやすく、旅館も運用が比較的容易であることから、とても重宝されています。また石段街についても、少し前までは団体旅行が多かったことから各旅館が施設内に売店や夜間の食事処を置くなどして囲い込みを行っていたため、徐々に街が廃れていました。現在では空き店舗や空き旅館も多く残る一方、石段街を中心として新たなお店も増え、宿泊のお客様で石段街を散策される方や、外から日帰りで訪れる方も多くなり、随分と活気が戻ってきております。長文となりましたが、ぜひ皆様一度は、宿泊なり日帰りなり、伊香保温泉へにお越しくださいませ。
— @takasaki86469 likes
From: "Two Completely Different Waters, From Almost the Same Spot": What Japanese Say About Ikaho Onsen's Gold and Silver Baths

What Japanese visitors recommend instead

It's the place to quietly drink a beer early in the morning while everyone else is still asleep.
朝早くまだみんなが寝てる時にこっそりビール飲む場所
— @秋葉のきつね124 likes
From: "I Never Even Knew It Had a Name": What the Chairs by the Window in Your Ryokan Room Are Actually For
I'm from Atami. What I'd recommend in Yugawara is the strip of hot spring inns up the mountain that people call Oku-Yugawara. The atmosphere is pretty good, though it's lined with expensive inns and the main crowd may well be older people whose whole trip is staying inside the inn.
地元が熱海の者です。湯河原でお勧めなのが、奥湯河原と云われる山のほうにある温泉宿街です。雰囲気は結構良いですが、高額な宿が立ち並びやはり宿内から出ない巣ごもり旅行を目的とした高齢者層がメインかもしれません。
— @rynsaxophonebros8837109 likes
From: Is Yugawara Onsen Worth It? Japanese Visitors Pick the Town Between Hakone and Atami Precisely Because Nothing Happens There
The company had a lodge there and until a few years ago we went several times a year as a family. In front of the station there were souvenir shops, a dried fish shop and places to eat, but a few years after we started going they closed, turned into parking lots, and the shooting gallery that used to open from the evening had closed by seven or eight years ago. Along the road that runs above, prefectural or national I'm not sure which, more businesses had shut every time we went, which is nothing but sad. Since even eating is a problem, for the last few years we used Atagawa as a base and spent our time between Ito and Shimoda. You could call it a second home, for the family memories it grew for us. It's made me want to go back after all this time. Thank you for the video.
会社の保養所があり、数年前まで毎年数回、家族と行ってました。駅前もお土産屋、干物屋、食事処がありましたが、行き始めて数年後には閉店、駐車場になったり、射的屋は、夕方からやっていたのが、7、８年前には閉店されてた。上を走る、県道？国道？も行くたびに廃業が増え、なんとも寂しい限りです。食事にも困るので、後半の数年は、熱川を拠点に伊東〜下田間を遊ぶ感じでした。家族との思い出を育んでくれた第二の故郷とも言えます。久しぶりに行ってみたくなりました。動画ありがとうございました。
— @光影-e5x95 likes
From: "By Day It Looks Derelict, at Night the Lights Come On": What Japanese Visitors Say About Atagawa Onsen
Atami is cluttered, so going a little further south is just right. In Ito or Izu-Kogen the sights are easy to reach and there are hotels with good value too.
熱海はごちゃごちゃしてるから少し南下するとちょうどいい。伊東や伊豆高原なら観光地のアクセスも良いし宿もコスパ良いとこあるよ
— @今正-l2o84 likes
From: Is Atami Worth Visiting Now? "Atami Used to Be Practically the Byword for a Ghost Town"
My favorite pattern is playing in Atami during the day, then coming back to Yugawara in the evening to stay the night.
日中は熱海で遊んで夕方湯河原に戻ってお泊まり、が好きなパターン。
— @yunii382261 likes
From: Is Yugawara Onsen Worth It? Japanese Visitors Pick the Town Between Hakone and Atami Precisely Because Nothing Happens There
Shirahama has hotels that take dogs in the ryokan strip along the sea, so even though I'm from Kinki I sometimes go down for an overnight
白浜は海沿いの旅館街に犬と泊まれるホテルがあるから、近畿民だけど時々泊まりで遊びに行ってる
— @ツカモト-r2e60 likes
From: "For a Day Out the South Is Fine, But You Can Get Home Without Staying": What Japanese Visitors Say About Shirahama After the Pandas Left

Places named across these roundups

Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you book through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Which places appear here is decided by the source comments only.

Biwanso (Yukemuri no Yado Biwanso)Wakura Onsen, Nanao
The inn with cheap single rooms that the most-liked comment (100 likes) remembers; another commenter says it is where his family stays and he is relieved it has reopened. Listed by the ryokan association as operating.
Sources: wakura.or.jp
TAOYA WakuraWakura Onsen, Nanao
Named (10 likes) as one of the places already taking guests, run by the Ooedo Onsen group.
HanagoyomiWakura Onsen, Nanao
Named in the same comment (10 likes) as operating.
HosenkakuWakura Onsen, Nanao
Named in the same comment (10 likes) as operating.
Hotel KaiboWakura Onsen, Nanao
Named in the same comment (10 likes) as operating; the association lists it as operating on a provisional basis.
Sources: wakura.or.jp
KagayaWakura Onsen, Nanao
Closed. The inn the thread treats as the symbol of the town; one commenter (6 likes) says leaving the damaged building standing is itself demoralizing.
Jubankan (formerly Park Hotel)Wakura Onsen, Nanao
Closed. Two commenters had stayed there and learned from the video that it had shut, as of the comments.
Wakura Onsen SoyuWakura Onsen, Nanao
The town's public bathhouse, open normally, 500 yen for adults.
Sources: hot-ishikawa.jp
Oku-YugawaraYugawara, Kanagawa
The strip of hot spring inns further up the mountain, and the single most-liked recommendation in the thread (109 likes), from a commenter who lives in Atami. Expensive inns, and a crowd that mostly stays inside them.
Tsubaki (Kaiseki-ro Tsubaki)Miyakami, Yugawara
The inn commenters name when they describe Oku-Yugawara's high end: one calls it the representative of the wealthy-guest ryokan Yugawara was originally built around (2 likes), another simply remembers staying there.
4.48★ from 336 guest reviews on Rakuten Travel (as of Sep 2026)
8.4/10 from 96 international guests on Agoda · Check rates and availability on Agoda
Kogome no YuMiyakami, Yugawara
The town's day-use bath, and where one commenter used to drive down alone from Tokyo when work wore him out. 1,100 yen for adults from 9:00 to 19:00, 600 yen after that, closed Mondays.
Sources: yugawara.or.jp
Yugawara Soyu Books and Retreat (Manyo Park)Miyakami, Yugawara
The retreat a resident calls the good place at the end of the video, built on the site of the old Doppo no Yu foot baths. Closed since 14 October 2025 and reopening 18 September 2026; the entrance terrace with its cafe, coworking space and foot bath is free, the bathing terrace is 3,500 yen for three hours without a meal and needs a reservation.
Sources: yugawara.or.jp
Iida ShotenToi, Yugawara
The ramen shop commenters say is now the most famous name in town. Reservation only: 11:00 to 15:00, closed Sunday to Tuesday, bookings open each Sunday at 16:00 for the following Wednesday to Saturday.
Sources: yugawara.or.jp
Yutoro Sagasawa no YuYoshihama, Yugawara
The other day bath in the thread, on a rise away from the onsen quarter. One commenter used to alternate it with Kogome no Yu; another stops there for the sashimi set on the way home.
Chibori Sweets Factory YugawaraToi, Yugawara, three minutes on foot from the station
A 17-like recommendation: a cookie buffet with a drink, quoted at 880 yen as of the comments. The maker's own shop runs it as a 60-minute all-you-can-eat with one drink, 10:00 to 17:00, and there is parking.
Sources: yugawara.or.jp
Zao Onsen Dai-rotenburo (big open-air bath)Zao Onsen, Yamagata City
The bath a commenter says you cannot get into during the ski season and should try once. Open late April to early November; 850 yen for adults. Take off metal jewelry, the water is strongly acidic.
Sources: jupeer-zao.com
Oomiya RyokanZao Onsen, Yamagata City
Where a commenter remembers staying on a midsummer bus tour, when it was almost cold even in high summer (5 likes).
4.54★ from 1,343 guest reviews on Rakuten Travel (as of Sep 2026)
8.6/10 from 282 international guests on Agoda · Check rates and availability on Agoda
Sangoro-goyaZao Onsen central slope
A lodge and restaurant on the central slope that a commenter passed recently and found busy with lunch customers and hikers (2 likes).
Ginzan OnsenObanazawa, Yamagata
One of the two Yamagata hot springs a commenter drives to instead, for more character (6 likes).
Hijiori OnsenOkura, Yamagata
The other one in the same comment (6 likes).
Okama crater lakeZao mountains
The crater lake the same commenter drives past Zao Onsen to reach (6 likes).
Zao BodairaKaminoyama, Yamagata
Where a regular stays instead, along with central Yamagata city, coming up to Zao for the baths, hiking and skiing (1 like).
Yamanaka OnsenKaga, Ishikawa
The town Japanese visitors like most: the atmosphere (34 likes) and the Kakusenkei gorge walk with fresh greenery and autumn leaves (2 likes). About 30 minutes by bus from Kaga-Onsen Station.
Sources: yamanaka-spa.or.jp
Kakusenkei GorgeKaga, Ishikawa
The riverside walk that makes Yamanaka the one Kaga town with somewhere to go after the bath (2 likes).
Katayamazu OnsenKaga, Ishikawa
On the shore of Shibayama-gata, the one town with a view (10 likes), and where the report filmed the abandoned hotels. An Aichi regular of twenty-odd stays mourns the Kaga Kanko Hotel here, closed as of the comments (39 likes).
Yamashiro OnsenKaga, Ishikawa
Named with Katayamazu as the towns the Yukai Resort budget chain runs its own buses to, which many guests take because it is cheaper than the train (19 likes).
Awazu OnsenKomatsu, Ishikawa
The fourth Kaga hot spring, listed in the 2-like comment that explains there is no single place called Kaga Onsen.
Kaga-Onsen StationKaga, Ishikawa
The shinkansen stop since March 2024, in none of the four towns (2 likes). A 21-like comment counts only two midday Kagayaki from Tokyo and poor connections to the CAN BUS loop.
Sources: westjr.co.jp
Tsuruga StationTsuruga, Fukui
Where the Thunderbird from Osaka now ends. The transfer Japanese visitors complain about most (272 likes), and the one a parent with a stroller calls a real hurdle (43 likes).
Gero OnsenGero, Gifu
Where the Nagoya side goes instead (12 likes): the onsen town starts right outside the station, which is exactly what Kaga-Onsen Station lacks (39 likes).

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.

Questions the roundups answer

Every roundup about Onsen (Japanese Hot Springs)

FAQ

Which onsen towns do Japanese commenters say are worth a night?: In these roundups the clear "go" verdicts are Atami (its comeback, and the advice to move on to Ito or Izu-Kogen if you want quiet), Shima Onsen (gentler water than Kusatsu, and easier to book than Ginzan) and Gero Onsen (the station-front baths one Hida train from Nagoya or Osaka, chosen for the geography more than the water). The famous names are not dismissed; they are judged on crowds and on whether the town has anything after dark.
Why are so many Japanese onsen towns half empty?: Two reasons come up again and again in the comments: expressways and faster trains turned overnight resorts into day trips, and the big group-tour ryokan of the 1980s and 90s never adapted to solo travelers and couples. The buildings they left behind are what visitors photograph; the water in the surviving inns is usually unchanged.
Where do these come from?: From the comment sections of Japanese YouTube videos — food crawls, hidden-gem tours, honest reviews. We quote real comments only, show the actual like counts at the time of collection, and link back to the source video.
How accurate are the translations?: Each quote keeps the original Japanese alongside the English. We adapt slang so it reads naturally, but we never change the meaning or invent comments.

Sources — 20 videos

Every number on this page comes from the public comment sections of these videos. The creators deserve the views.

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