Japan Onsen Hopping | Weekend Vlog of Kurokawa Onsen Village | 黒川温泉、湯めぐり、熊本

We've made it to Kurokawa! Time to explore this little onsen village. Hello everyone and welcome to this video. Today we are at Kurokawa Onsen which is in Kumamoto Prefecture. This is a beautiful onsen village that is about a three hour bus ride from Fukuoka. I just got here and I'm so excited to explore. The area is known for its hot springs and beautiful traditional Japanese inns. There are almost 30 of these in the area and what is super cool is that there is a special onsen hopping day pass. So I just picked up this little ticket. It allows me to go to three different onsens and I'm going to be enjoying that and showing you what it is like. So let's go on this onsen hopping adventure in Kurokawa Onsen! Kurokawa Onsen is a rural hot spring village located far away from any major highways and train stations. It is nestled in the mountains of Kumamoto and can be quite difficult to access if you don't have a car. Since I'm coming from Fukuoka and don't have a car, I'll be taking the Nishitetsu bus. Because only a few buses run each day, it's important to book seats early especially for trips during peak times like winter and golden week. The trip from Fukuoka is about three hours. The ride is a bit long but there is wonderful scenery to enjoy along the way. There's free wi-fi on the bus but don't forget to look out the window too. It's been a long bus ride but we've made it to Kurokawa Onsen! Kurokawa Onsen is famous for its, well, onsens. So we are going to be experiencing a lot of these on the trip. There are cave onsens, private onsens, mixed gender onsens, standing onsens, you name it. Lucky for us travelers, there is a special program called Yuu Meguri or onsen hopping. With this little onsen pass, you can visit three different hot springs in the area. I picked up my cedar onsen hopping pass at the tourist center. For an adult it's only 1,300 yen and for children it's 700 yen. I've got the token around my neck and we're ready to head to the first onsen. Viewers who like adventures in the rain, you got your wish. It is a rainy misty day here in Kurokawa but it is still beautiful and I will capture it and share it with you. We are on a short nine minute walk from the tourist center to the first stop, a ryokan called Okunoyu. Okunoyu is located right by the Tanoharu river and has lush greenery all around. After entering, we handed the wood passes to the staff. They took off the stickers and gave us our first stamp. Time to enjoy onsen number one. One soak later. I just got out of the Okunoyu onsen that was right over here. They have some beautiful open air onsens. One of them I got to sit in and when I looked out over I could see a waterfall in the background. Talk about peaceful. I couldn't take any photos inside of this and that will probably be the same for all of the rest of the places I visit but I have a very talented artist friend and he is going to draw a picture to show you what it looks like. This was my favorite bath which was located right next to the water. When I leaned over the edge, I could see a waterfall and the river rushing below. The air outside was cold enough to see my breath but after soaking in the piping hot water, it became comfortable to stand outside of the water completely bare. The only thing about this place is that some of their onsens are mixed gender so this means you may be seeing some strangers a little bit naked. If it's okay with you, that's perfect but if you are a little bit uneasy about that then maybe you want to stick to the onsens that have separated gender baths or private baths. I absolutely loved seeing the view that this place had and I am excited to continue the onsen adventure. On to number two. Next up on the list is a place called Ikoe Ryokan. This inn is located back near the center of the village so let's explore around a bit and refill with some snacks. There are all these shops that line the streets of Kurokawa. We just passed a sake shop. We have a gift shop. This is a little temple that is in the heart of the little village Jizo temple. Many people like to dedicate their onsen hopping passes to the temple once they finish visiting the three different places. We have a little foot bath. For those who don't want to do the traditional onsen style, you can just dip your feet in instead and it is right by the water so you get a nice thunderous roar as you soak your feet. It is 100 yen to use the foot bath and 100 yen if you want a towel. We snacked on a few treats in town including a matcha dorayaki, huge crispy cream puff, a mochi cake, and coffee jelly. We also stopped by a cool restaurant called Yamatake for a proper meal. This restaurant specializes in mountain yam cuisine and each table has a grilling space in the middle. Ready to eat! Here we have the chicken and beef set lunches. Gosh look at this feast that we have full of veggies, dumplings, rice, grilled meats, and pickled veggies. Itadakimasu! We have finished the meal. All of the meat went onto the grill and oops not this piece. There's one left. Saving that. But we have finished. What a fun meal at this restaurant with the grill inside the table. We just got to this special place that has onsen tamago. Could smell the sofa as we were walking by but now we are going to get to try an onsen egg. So what we do is we put 100 yen into the box. Okay that fair. And then I think we get to take the egg from the basket. Be careful as it is hot. And there's one egg left. Oh yeah baby. Is it hot? Warm. Warm. All right. So then we crack it into this little dump bucket and then looks like there's some salt. Whoa what the heck. Okay we're gonna have to eat this quickly. A little bit of salt. What's it like? It's delicious. The egg is so buttery inside. Wow. My turn. Oh yum. Wow the yolk is like the perfect smoothie velvetyness. Super yummy. Definitely try one if you're walking by and see one of these onsen egg stands along the way. We have just arrived at onsen number two Ikkoi Ryokan. Next place we're going to has some bijin-yu. Bijin being beautiful lady. Yu being hot water. So it's gonna be some hot water for this beautiful lady. Outside of the building there is a footbath with a table as well as more onsen eggs just in case you didn't get enough. Whoo we just got stamp number two. For female onsen hopping guests there are two main baths to enjoy. A standard semi-outdoor bath with a waterfall above and my favorite a standing bath. What is a standing bath you ask? At Ikkoi Ryokan this is a bath that is deep enough to stand in and still be submerged. Two floating bamboo poles float in the middle of the water and are attached to the structure above. It was so relaxing to float in the water which was up to my clavicle arms around the bamboo like a gymnast on parallel bars. There is no standing bath for guys at the ryokan but don't worry guys can enjoy the two outdoor baths, one semi-indoor bath, a cold bath, and a sauna. Since evening is starting to fall it's time to check in at the ryokan for the night. This lovely place is called Ichinoi. The room has traditional Japanese elements like sliding washi doors and tatami mats but comes with western style beds instead of futons. Two beds and a little place for tea and look out into the nature. After checking in I wanted to go back to take a few more evening photos of the village before dinner. Here are a few snapshots. Okay it's time for dinner and I'm starving. Let's head back to the ryokan. We have the dinner for tonight. It comes right in the middle with some sashimi. We have some special sashimi sauce and a spicy wasabi. After that we have some Kumamoto specialty. This is some raw chicken with yuzu kosho on top, mustard renkon, and then over here we have some basashi which is horse sashimi. Umeshu, special shoyu for the basashi, and then over here we have four slices of wagyu meat to be cooked on the grill. Here we also have chawanmushi, a steamed egg dish, a simmered fish ball dish, and a fish and mushroom pie. Itadakimasu! That sizzle is amazing. Well we've had a huge feast of food that incorporated such an array of different dishes. Now what's a better way to end the night than with one more soak in this time a private bath. The ryokan I'm staying in has private baths available for rent so I'm going to try out one of these. These kinds of baths are great for families, couples, those with lots of tattoos, and others who don't like the idea of bathing with strangers. Ohayo gozaimasu minna-san. It's time for another beautiful day in Kurokawa Onsen. Good morning to everyone. Today we have the breakfast spread, a freshly grilled fish, some vegetables like tofu, that's not a vegetable, but we have tofu, mushroom, pickled veggies, we have some cooking bacon and egg over this hot plate, and then we also have a hot miso soup in this bowl. Meal of champions. Here we go. Ah, back to bed. Just kidding, we have to go explore! Come on! Ohayo gozaimasu everyone. Welcome to a morning here in Kumamoto. I just had a wonderful first day here in Kurokawa Onsen. I got to go to two onsens and then got to walk around the town a little bit, took some photos during golden hour, and then went back to the ryokan that I'm staying at for a beautiful dinner. A lot of Kumamoto specialties, and then I went to the private bath to enjoy what that experience was like. Had a great sleep, so wonderful, and then woke up to the most majestic light coming through the washi screen. Again, I had a great breakfast at the hotel. I am so full but energized and ready for this morning. Today I am going to be going on a hike around the Kurokawa Onsen area, and then afterwards I will be going to onsen number three. It is a beautiful day today, not like yesterday's rainy stuff, but I'm excited and let's go see what it's like today in Kurokawa. This is the walking trail that we are on this morning. It is called the Hitotsuya-no-bori, and it is a forest and cultural landscape in Kurokawa. So right now we are right here. We're going to be walking around this area. So it goes uphill, didn't really expect that, but I'm going to be relying on the food that we ate this morning to get our butts and bodies up this hill. It was a bit rainy yesterday, which is why it's a little muddy today, but can't complain with this weather that we have now. Well, we're walking up now and you can hear the sound of this little babbling brook, babbling river. Oh god, I got really bright. This is bad lighting! Hold up, hold up, back to the shade. Well, you can't hear it anymore, but it was a very beautiful sound of this little stream that is running by the course that we are walking up. What an arm workout, man! New camera, new challenges in life. If I did this every morning, my human spirit would be elevated so much. Whoa, whoa, whoa, the little babbling brook next to me turned into a trench of water. So beautiful. Even though it's April, there is the last parts of the cherry blossom season. We split in the road, so we will be taking the left to go to the Kiranodai Observatory. We have made it to the observatory and you can have a gorgeous view of Mount Aso in the distance. This is home to Japan's most active volcano and is a wonderful place to hike. If you want to check out hiking on Mount Aso, check out the link above. We have come to a beautiful rocky waterfall area. Walking through the shrubs, they go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle as I pass. This is such a cool forest that we're in. The maple, the water, the trees. Wow, there's water on both sides! Look! The craziest mushroom ever. If we just take a little peek at this tree, this mushroom looks like...what? This mushroom is growing through the branch. There's another mushroom! Anywho, continuing our journey through this magical forest of mushrooms and water. Heard some new terrain with these straggly barren trees. Come to some strangely shaped rocks. Strange. We are out of the forest now and walking along this road to the next place which is our third onsen. We are going to Yamamizuki to soak in one last time before we end our trip here in Kurokawa. Let's go to the onsen! We have made it to the third onsen area called Yamamizuki. Here we go. To the left is for men and to the right is for women. The last hot spring of the day. One final soak later. This onsen had another awesome outdoor bath right by the water. You could hear the birds chirping in the trees above and see the water flow by. I spent a long time enjoying the bath at Yamamizuki so I recommend you check it out for yourself. We have successfully finished our onsen hopping here in Kurokawa. We went to three different places and got to experience the different onsens. Well we finished going to the Yamamizuki onsen. Now I'm heading back into the main part of the village for getting a little bite to eat before heading back on the bus. I've heard that there is a shuttle bus from the onsen we were just at to town but you can also walk and so we are taking the trail and it goes right next to this river that is super nice. So not a bad idea for those who like to walk and enjoy nature. A tofu restaurant has many tofu dishes. Here is our tofu lunch. It comes with all types of plant-based foods. After lunch it's time to head to the bus and say goodbye to Kurokawa. Thank you so much for coming with me on this Kurokawa onsen adventure. I had so much fun going in all of the different onsens, eating food, staying in a luxurious ryokan, and taking a walk in nature. It was so much fun and this is a great place to come to if you are looking for a weekend getaway near Fukuoka. So don't forget to add this to your bucket list next time you are in the area. If you want to see more Japan adventures don't forget to like and subscribe and I'll be posting new videos soon. Thank you so much and I hope to see you again. Until next time!