Day-Trip Hot Springs in Kumamoto: 15 Baths in Kurokawa, Aso, Hitoyoshi and More, with Prices and Hours (2026)

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This page compares 15 day-trip hot springs (tachiyoriyu) in 5 hot spring areas of Kumamoto Prefecture: Kurokawa, Aso, Hitoyoshi, Yamaga and Tamana. For an adult going alone into the large bath, entry runs from ¥350 to ¥1,000. The cheapest is Sakura-yu in Yamaga, run by the city, at ¥350 (6:00 to 24:00). Hirayama Onsen’s “Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa” has only private baths, from ¥1,800 per room for 60 minutes. “Yumeoisou” in Aso Uchinomaki is open from 6:00 to 1:00 (last entry 24:00), and in Kurokawa a ¥1,500 bath pass (nyuto tegata) lets you pick 3 open-air baths out of 25.

Note: In Japan, public baths are normally separated by gender and you bathe without a swimsuit. Towels are often rented or sold separately (see each entry).

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1. How to choose: price, hours, children, private baths

• Cheapest: Yamaga Onsen Sakura-yu (adult ¥350), Aso Bochu Onsen Yume-no-Yu (adult ¥400), Hirayama Onsen Motoyu (adult ¥400).
• Early morning or late night: Sakura-yu (6:00 to 24:00), Yumeoisou (6:00 to 1:00, last entry 24:00), Hinoyama Onsen Dondoko-yu (from 7:00 on weekends and holidays). In Kurokawa, Kounoyu, Ikoi Ryokan, Ryokan Wakaba and Senomoto Kogen Hotel open at 8:30.
• By children’s price: Yume-no-Yu is free for children under elementary school age and Shirasagi-so is free up to age 2. The Kurokawa children’s bath pass is ¥700 (age 3 to sixth grade).
• For your family or group alone: Yumeoisou’s private family baths (from ¥1,100), Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa (from ¥1,800 per room for 60 minutes), Tamana Onsen Tsukasa-no-Yu’s family baths (from ¥2,200 for 60 minutes).

2. Comparison table: price, hours and closed days for 15 baths

The adult price for one person ranges from ¥350 at Sakura-yu to ¥1,000 at Hitoyoshi Ryokan, Tsukasa-no-Yu (regular) and Dondoko-yu (weekends and holidays). For Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa, which has only private baths, the price column shows the price per room. Prices follow each facility’s official site. The hours column shows when you can bathe, with the last entry or last exit in brackets where given.

A “–” in the table means no information was found officially. The hours for the 6 Kurokawa baths are the normal hours on the Kurokawa Onsen official “day-trip bathing status” page and can change by day. “Not stated” means the facility’s official page gives no water type; for the 2 Hirayama Onsen facilities, the type is the one the Hirayama Onsen tourist association gives for the hot spring area.

3. Kurokawa Onsen (Minamioguni Town): day-trip baths and the bath pass

Kurokawa Onsen is run on the idea of “Kurokawa Onsen as one ryokan”, treating its 30 inns and the whole countryside scenery as a single inn. That idea is behind the bath pass (nyuto tegata): one adult pass costs ¥1,500 and lets you choose any 3 open-air baths out of 25. It is valid for 6 months from the day you buy it, and bathing hours are 8:30 to 21:00. One pass is for one person and cannot be shared. Of the 3 stickers on the back of the pass, 2 red ones are for open-air baths, and the green one can also be used at a shop or restaurant in the hot spring town. The children’s pass (age 3 to sixth grade) is ¥700, with 2 stickers for open-air baths and 1 that the ryokan association exchanges for a drink (what is given changes from time to time). Buy it at any participating inn or at the ryokan association’s “Kaze-no-Ya”. On cleaning days or closed days you may not be able to bathe, and photos in the open-air baths are in principle not allowed.

If you are staying in Kurokawa, you can compare inns in Kurokawa and Tsuetate. Rakuten Travel: find inns in Kurokawa Onsen (ad)

You can also go into just one bath without the pass. The price is ¥500 to ¥800 at the 6 baths below. The Kurokawa Onsen official “day-trip bathing status” page shows each inn’s reception hours for today and tomorrow and how crowded it is at that moment. It warns that you may not get in when it is crowded.

Shinmeikan

Shinmeikan costs ¥500 and is open from 10:30 to 15:00 (last entry 14:30). The introduction on the Kurokawa Onsen official site says it has a “cave bath” dug by hand by the owner, and an open-air bath.

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Sato-no-Yu Waraku

Sato-no-Yu Waraku costs ¥600. Because of cleaning, day-trip bathing is given as 15:00 to 19:30 (last entry 19:00). The water is sulfur-containing sodium chloride-sulfate.

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Kounoyu

Kounoyu costs ¥700 and is open from 8:30 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30). It is a cloudy, alkaline simple spring using two types of source water, with the water flowing freely through the baths (kakenagashi).

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Ikoi Ryokan

Ikoi Ryokan costs ¥800 and is open from 8:30 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30). It is the only inn in Kurokawa Onsen on the “100 Famous Secret Hot Springs of Japan” list, and is described as having 13 baths, including a women’s open-air bath called “Bijin-yu”. The day-trip status page says mornings are recommended and afternoons are crowded. There is no car park for day visitors. The shower is only in the men’s bath, not in the women’s.

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Ryokan Wakaba

Ryokan Wakaba costs ¥700 and you can bathe in two periods, 8:30 to 10:00 and 11:30 to 21:00. The water is weakly acidic simple spring.

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Senomoto Kogen Hotel

Senomoto Kogen Hotel is on the Senomoto plateau at 920 m, with views of the five peaks of Aso. Day-trip bathing costs ¥700 and is open 8:30 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30). From 10:00 to 11:30 it is closed for cleaning. On some days the closing time is earlier. The water is weakly alkaline simple spring.

Official pages: Bath pass (Kurokawa Onsen)　Day-trip bathing status (Kurokawa Onsen) (both Japanese)

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4. Aso (Aso City and Minamiaso Village): day-trip hot springs

In Aso you can use both day-trip-only hot springs and inns’ large baths.

Aso Bochu Onsen Yume-no-Yu

Yume-no-Yu in Aso City costs ¥400 for adults (junior high school and over) and ¥200 for elementary school children; children under elementary school age are free. It is open 10:00 to 22:00 (reception until 21:20) and the large bath is closed on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month (the next day if the Monday is a holiday). The large bath has a sauna and a cold plunge bath. The water is listed as sodium, magnesium sulfate and bicarbonate (hypotonic, neutral, hot spring), at a source temperature of 53.0 °C.

Official page: Aso Bochu Onsen Yume-no-Yu (Japanese)

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Yumeoisou

Yumeoisou in Uchinomaki Onsen charges ¥600 for the large bath, and it is open from 6:00 until 1:00 the next morning (last entry 24:00), the latest of the 15 facilities. There are 15 private family baths from ¥1,100. The water is hypotonic, weakly alkaline simple spring.

Official page: Hot spring (Yumeoisou) (Japanese)

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Hinoyama Onsen Dondoko-yu

Dondoko-yu in Minamiaso Village is a day-trip-only facility. On May 1, 2026 it revised its adult fee: adults (junior high school and over) now pay ¥900 on weekdays and ¥1,000 on weekends and holidays. People who follow its official Instagram or are registered on LINE pay ¥800 on weekdays and ¥900 on weekends and holidays. People living in Minamiaso Village stay on the old prices, and the price for ages 3 to elementary school (¥330 on weekdays, ¥440 on weekends and holidays) is unchanged. It is open 11:00 to 22:00 on weekdays (last entry 21:00) and from 7:00 to 22:00 on weekends and holidays, with no closed days. All 13 tubs, men’s and women’s combined, use free-flowing source water, and there are 3 indoor baths: hot, regular and lukewarm. There is also a sauna. The water is sulfate, and you can rent a bath towel for ¥250.

Official page: Prices (Dondoko-yu) (Japanese)

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5. Hitoyoshi Onsen (Hitoyoshi City): day-trip bathing

In Hitoyoshi, along the Kuma River, you can use inns’ baths on a day trip.

Hitoyoshi Ryokan

Hitoyoshi Ryokan, a nationally registered tangible cultural property, costs ¥1,000 for adults and ¥500 for children, with reception from 8:00 to 19:00. The water is sodium bicarbonate and chloride. Overnight guests have priority, so you may be turned away even within reception hours, and the same applies during cleaning. Day visitors cannot use the open-air bath. Towels are not lent for free; they are sold at the front desk for ¥200.

Official page: Hot spring (Hitoyoshi Ryokan) (Japanese)

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Hitoyoshi Onsen Shirasagi-so

Shirasagi-so costs ¥800 for adults (junior high school and over) and is open from 12:00 to 21:00 (last exit 21:00). For children, the official table lists “child (up to elementary school) ¥400”, “age 3 and over ¥300” and “infants (up to age 2) free”, and it does not say where between age 3 and elementary school the ¥400 applies. Only the large bath is available on a day trip. The water is sodium chloride and bicarbonate (hypotonic, weakly alkaline, hot spring), and a hot spring towel is ¥300 at the reception on the 2nd floor of the main building. A family bath may be available by reservation, so inquire in advance.

Official page: Hot spring (Hitoyoshi Onsen Shirasagi-so) (Japanese)

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6. Yamaga Onsen and Hirayama Onsen (Yamaga City): day-trip baths

Yamaga City has Yamaga Onsen in the town center and Hirayama Onsen in the hills.

Yamaga Onsen Sakura-yu

Sakura-yu in Yamaga is the city’s own original bath house, and the adult (junior high school and over) price of ¥350 is the lowest of the 15 facilities. Children (age 3 to elementary school) pay ¥150. It is open from 6:00 to 24:00 and closed on the 3rd Wednesday of each month (the next weekday if that is a holiday).

Official page: Sakura-yu (Yamaga Tanbo Navi) (Japanese)

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Hirayama Onsen Motoyu

Motoyu in Hirayama Onsen costs ¥400 for adults and ¥200 for children (age 3 to elementary school) for bathing only. It is described as a natural hot spring with 100% free-flowing source water and the strong sliminess typical of Hirayama Onsen. According to the Hirayama Onsen tourist association, the water of Hirayama Onsen is alkaline simple sulfur spring. Opening hours and closed days are not on the association’s facility page.

Official page: Hirayama Onsen Motoyu (Japanese)

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Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa

Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa, also in Hirayama Onsen, has 10 private baths, all with an indoor and an open-air bath. A room for 60 minutes costs ¥1,800 on weekdays from 11:00 to 18:00 (with free drinks), and ¥2,200 at other times, or ¥2,500 with free drinks. There is no limit on the number of people, and you can book by phone. It is open 11:00 to 23:00 (reception ends at 22:00) and closed every Thursday.

Official page: Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa (Japanese)

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7. Tamana Onsen (Tamana City): day-trip bathing

Tamana Onsen Tsukasa-no-Yu

At Tamana Onsen Tsukasa-no-Yu the large bath costs ¥1,000 for adults (junior high school and over) and ¥500 for children (age 4 to elementary school) at the regular price, and ¥800 and ¥450 for members (all tax included). Membership costs a ¥1,000 joining fee and gives the member price for bathing and family baths. The large bath is open 9:00 to 21:50 (last entry 21:20) and the family baths 12:00 to 21:40 (last entry 20:40). It is open all year, except when closed for maintenance. The water is simple spring. A family bath is priced per room for 3 adults: a cypress bath type is ¥2,200 for 60 minutes at the regular price, an open-air bath type ¥2,600 and a special room type ¥2,900. 90-minute plans are also offered. A hand towel is ¥200 and a rented bath towel ¥200. Family baths can be booked on weekdays only.

Official page: Prices (Tamana Onsen Tsukasa-no-Yu) (Japanese)

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8. Day-trip hot springs in other Kyushu prefectures

This page does not link to English versions of the lists for the other Kyushu prefectures. The Japanese lists are: Nagasaki (Unzen, Obama, Shimabara), Oita (Beppu, Yufuin, Nagayu, Amagase, Hita) and Miyazaki (Ebino, Aoshima) (all Japanese).

9. Photos from Hitoyoshi Ryokan

These photos were provided by Hitoyoshi Ryokan.

The official pages are in Japanese. This page does not say whether the facilities can be used with English-language support, or whether tattoos are allowed.

Sources

12 pages we checkedShow

• Bath pass (Kurokawa Onsen)
• Day-trip bathing status (Kurokawa Onsen)
• Aso Bochu Onsen Yume-no-Yu
• Hot spring (Yumeoisou)
• Prices (Dondoko-yu)
• Hot spring (Hitoyoshi Ryokan)
• Hot spring (Hitoyoshi Onsen Shirasagi-so)
• Sakura-yu (Yamaga Tanbo Navi)
• Hirayama Onsen Motoyu
• Kazoku Onsen Yunokawa
• Prices (Tamana Onsen Tsukasa-no-Yu)
• Japanese version of this page (日本語版)

Checked with official pages on October 17, 2026 (Japan time).