Kusatsu Onsen

Kanto, Japan · Mountain, Snow

One of Japan's most celebrated hot spring towns, with the steaming Yubatake ("hot water field") right in the town centre, source of much of the country's largest natural thermal flow; the yumomi ritual (stirring the water with wooden boards to cool it without diluting it, performed for the public), Sainokawara Park with its large free open-air bath by the river, and its own ski resort in winter.

The essentials

Getting there

Train — Joetsu Shinkansen Tokyo-Takasaki (¥4,810, ~50min) + JR limited express to Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi (¥1,170, ~50min) + JR Bus Kanto to Kusatsu Onsen (~25min, ¥780), roughly ¥6,760 total and ~2h. The final bus leg IS covered by the National JR Pass (jprail.com confirms this explicitly), an unusual case in the catalog — though NOT covered by the regional JR East passes.

Frequently asked questions about Kusatsu Onsen

What to do in Kusatsu Onsen: 31 activities

• Yubatake, the hot-water field 1.5 h must-see

  Kusatsu's steaming heart: a wooden channel in the centre of town carrying much of the more than 4,000 liters per minute of hot-spring water that make this Japan's largest natural spring source, lit up at night.

• Yugama, open after eight years 2 h only 1 Jun - 8 Nov

  The turquoise crater lake of Kusatsu-Shirane had been closed to visitors since April 2018. On 8 October 2026 the volcanic disaster council voted to reopen the western trail, the viewpoint, the car park and part of the Yumi-ike pond boardwalk, from 13 October at 10:00 until the winter closure on 8 November: four weeks to see a crater lake roughly 300 m across that almost nobody has seen in eight years. The opening does not include the summits of Shirane (about 2,160 m according to the Cabinet Office) or Motoshirane (2,171 m, the highest of the volcano's three tops, with Ai-no-mine at 2,109). The alert has been at Level 1 since 15 May 2026 and Route 292 has been open end to end since 29 May, but this is decided season by season by the council and checked on Kusatsu town's website: what holds one year may not hold the next.

• Otakinoyu and the stepped awase-yu bath 1.5 h

  A bathhouse with five wooden tubs from 38 to 46 degrees that you work through in order, raising the temperature little by little: the traditional method for handling Kusatsu's water.

• Gozanoyu bathhouse 1 h

  A bath rebuilt in Edo style next to the Yubatake, with two waters from different sources and new timber that smells of cypress.

• International Music Academy and Festival 2.5 h booking only the second half of August

  Since 1980, every August the village fills with classical music, with international teachers giving classes and concerts in an auditorium set in the forest.

• Kosenji temple 1 h

  Founded in 721 and one of the three great temples of the healing Buddha of the hot springs, alongside Arima and Yamanaka; it unveiled a five-story pagoda in 2023.

• Onsen manju trail 1 h

  Around fifteen bakeries compete for the best filled bun in the village, and many hand out a warm sample at the door to win you over.

• Sainokawara Park 1.5 h

  A riverside park on the edge of town with a large free, mixed open-air hot-spring bath (rotenburo), surrounded by volcanic scenery and steaming rock formations.

• The pond trail: Yoshigadaira, Odaira and the Chatsubomi moss park 5 h only 1 Jun - 31 Oct

  The Yoshigadaira peat bogs have been a Ramsar wetland since 28 May 2015: 887 hectares across the towns of Kusatsu and Nakanojo, stacked between 1,200 and 2,160 metres according to the Ministry of the Environment's Ramsar leaflet, with water so acidic that almost nothing lives in it. The ministry signposts a trail linking the wetland to the Chatsubomi moss park by way of the Odaira bog (1,600 m), the Heibei, Oike and Mizuike ponds and Anaijigoku (1,300 m), the gully where the moss grows. It is a day's descent through Veitch's fir forest with no shops and no drinking water, walked downhill so the elevation works for you; no authority publishes a walking time. The upper trailhead is a bus ride up Route 292 and the lower end comes out on the Kusatsu road. Check with the town that the upper section is outside the volcano's restricted zone, which changes from year to year.

• The Shiga Kogen pond circuit, on foot 6 h Yamanouchi · 60 min only 1 Jun - 31 Oct

  The side of Shiga Kogen you never see from the snow-wall road. The two authorities that describe it do not measure the same thing, because they do not start in the same place: the Ministry of the Environment gives about 10 km and roughly 5 hours from the Maeyama chairlift, while the Japan Tourism Agency gives 12.6 km, 300 m of ascent and about 5 h 30 for the variant that joins the circuit at the Shijuhachi-ike bog. You pass Shibu-ike with its floating islands of vegetation and the forty-eight pools of Shijuhachi-ike crossed on boardwalk, then drop to Onuma-ike, a cobalt-blue lake inside a special protection zone of Joshin'etsu Kogen National Park. The whole plateau has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1980, extended in June 2014, and straddles the Gunma-Nagano border. This is bear country: do not walk it silently or at dusk.

• The timed bathing ritual (jikan-yu) 1 h

  An Edo-period tradition still practiced: exactly three minutes submerged in water above 45 degrees, everyone at once and on a leader's call.

• The village's communal baths 1 h

  Kusatsu has some eighteen free communal baths scattered through its streets, but only three (Shirahata, Jizo and Chiyo) are open to visitors: the rest are for residents only, and that should be respected.

• The Yubatake lit up at night 1 h

  At dusk the steam and the light change the village completely; in winter a tree of lights is added over the spring itself.

• Yumomi performance 1 h

  A traditional demonstration in which women in period dress stir the spring water with long wooden boards to the rhythm of a song, cooling it without diluting its mineral properties, ending with an audience-participation round.

• Chatsubomigoke moss park 1 h

  A very rare moss that thrives only in strongly acidic water covers the rocks of a thermal stream in an almost fluorescent green.

• Foot baths around the village 0.5 h

  Several free ashiyu right in the centre, ideal for a rest between walks without undressing.

• Glass and tombo-dama bead workshop 1 h

  Blown glass and coloured beads taking the emerald green of the thermal water as their reference, with short sessions to make your own piece.

• Hot spring thanksgiving festival 3 h only 1-2 Aug

  Two days in August to give thanks for the thermal water, descended from the old ritual bath held before dawn.

• Kusatsu cider and craft beer 1 h

  Cider made with spring water and several local craft beers, the alternative to sake after the bath.

• Kusatsu ski resort 4 h

  The town's own ski resort in winter, with slopes for all levels and the added bonus of soaking in the town's onsen after skiing.

• Mount Shirane and the Yugama crater 3 h

  A volcano just outside the village with the Yugama crater, a sulfurous blue lake; hiking is available from mid-April to early November in normal years, but check the state of access before going, since volcanic activity closes the summit and the parking lot fairly often (closed, for example, in 2026).

• Shiga-Kusatsu Kogen alpine route 3 h

  A high-mountain scenic road that, when it opens in May, runs between walls of snow several metres high on both sides.

• Shirane Jinja 0.5 h

  The village shrine among cedars, set high above the Yubatake and almost always empty despite being two minutes from the centre.

• Snowshoeing through the beech forest 3 h booking

  A guided winter crossing among beeches and fumaroles, for when the normal trails are closed by snow.

• The Yubatake as designed by Okamoto Taro 0.5 h

  The square, the paving and the monument around the hot water field were designed in 1976 by the artist Okamoto Taro: the village's iconic image is in fact a work of contemporary art.

• Thermal cure stay (toji) 14 h booking

  The tradition of staying for days or weeks to treat ailments with Japan's most acidic water; some inns still keep the format and the long-stay rates.

• Wooden shopping streets of the centre 1.5 h

  The two arteries running down from the Yubatake, full of wooden shops, arcade game stalls and people strolling in yukata and geta.

• Yoshigadaira wetlands 3 h

  High-altitude peat bogs protected under the Ramsar Convention, half an hour from the village, with wooden boardwalks and absolute silence.

• Yunohana, the spring salts 0.5 h

  Bath salts gathered by hand from the Yubatake itself, with a limited output of a few thousand packets a year: the village's real souvenir.

• Erwin Bälz Hall 0.75 h

  A small museum devoted to the German doctor who studied these waters in the 19th century and put Kusatsu on the European scientific map.

• Kusatsu in anime 1 h

  The village appears in several series and takes part in the 'Onsen Musume' character campaign, with themed rooms at some lodgings.

What only happens on specific dates

• Yugama, open after eight years 1 Jun - 8 Nov
• The pond trail: Yoshigadaira, Odaira and the Chatsubomi moss park 1 Jun - 31 Oct
• The Shiga Kogen pond circuit, on foot 1 Jun - 31 Oct
• International Music Academy and Festival the second half of August
• Hot spring thanksgiving festival 1-2 Aug

Ready-made routes through Kusatsu Onsen

Chains well with

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