Yufuin

Kyushu, Japan · Town / small city, Mountain

Three innkeepers formed an association in the early seventies to block a golf course and the coach-tour hotels, then paid out of their own pockets for a fifty-day study trip across Europe to bring back the idea of a spa town people actually live in. It worked too well: the street from the station to the lake is now a souvenir corridor, and the real Yufuin is in the side lanes, in the seven neighbourhood baths with an honesty box, and in Isozaki's station, with its foot bath on the platform.

The essentials

Getting there

Train — Direct train from Fukuoka or Beppu

Frequently asked questions about Yufuin

What to do in Yufuin: 32 activities

• The village before nine and after five 2 h must-see

  The model worked too well: the street between the station and the lake is now a corridor of souvenir shops where in high season you walk shoulder to shoulder between ten and four. The real Yufuin exists before nine in the morning and after half past five, once the coach parties leave, and in the side streets.

• Stroll along the main street and galleries 2 h must-see

  Craft shops and small galleries on the way to the station.

• Arata Isozaki's station and its foot bath 0.5 h

  Isozaki, a Pritzker winner born in Oita, rebuilt the station in 1990: a black wooden hall with a twelve-metre ceiling and overhead light. Inside there is a rotating art gallery and a foot bath on the platform itself.

• Bungo-gyu, toriten and dango-jiru 1.5 h booking

  Bungo-gyu is Oita's certified wagyu; toriten is chicken tempura eaten with soy sauce and mustard; and dango-jiru is a miso soup with wide strips of dough, peasant food. Round it off with the basin's dairy products and a local roll cake that sells out daily.

• COMICO ART MUSEUM, by Kengo Kuma 1 h booking

  Museum of charred wood walls designed by Kengo Kuma, with work by Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Tatsuo Miyajima and Mariko Mori. Visits run by time slot and it closes on alternate Wednesdays.

• Cycling around the basin 2.5 h

  Rental at the station for a little over 1,000 yen a day, with an electric option. The basin is flat and the network of tracks between the rice paddies lets you escape the crowds completely in ten minutes of pedalling: probably the best investment of the trip.

• Day baths at ryokan with views of Mount Yufu 1.25 h

  Three establishments open their bath to non-guests, in narrow midday and early-afternoon windows, with large panoramic rotenburo. Confirm the hours on the day itself: they change often and are suspended when the hotel is full.

• Onsen with views of Mount Yufu 1.5 h booking

  Open-air hot spring baths with views of Yufuin's sacred mountain.

• Sea of fog from the Sagiridai viewpoint 1.25 h

  The name means literally 'fog viewpoint': on cold, clear, windless early mornings after a humid day, fog fills the whole basin and Yufudake rises above it. It is the same condition seen from Lake Kinrin, but from above. Requires a car or a taxi.

• Shouting While Eating Beef Contest 4.5 h booking only Sports Day (the second Monday of October)

  Collective bungo-gyu barbecue on the meadows at the foot of Yufudake where participants shout at the mountain whatever they are carrying inside. It was born in 1976 as part of the recovery plan after the earthquake and is held in October; it is probably the most genuinely Yufuin festival there is.

• The story of the Yufuin that turned down the big hotels 1 h

  In July 1970 the owners of three inns founded an association to protect the nature of the valley and stopped a golf course and the big group-tourism hotels. In 1971 they made a 50-day study trip around Europe, paid out of their own pockets, and brought back the spa-residence model; and after the 1975 earthquake they invented the three festivals that still define the town.

• The town's communal baths 1 h

  Yufuin keeps seven neighbourhood-run baths, nearly all unstaffed and with an honesty box, between 100 and 500 yen: Yunotsubo, Edo in origin; Kase-no-yu, founded in 1876; Kawanishi, with iron-rich water; and several more. Bring your own soap and towel. Warning: Shitanyu, the one by the lake, is a mixed bath.

• Yufuin no Mori train 2.5 h booking

  Green sightseeing train from 1989 with wooden floors, a panoramic lounge and raised windows, covering Hakata-Yufuin in about two hours and a quarter. The line was cut by the torrential rains of 2020 and fully restored in March 2021. A seat reservation is compulsory and sells out weeks ahead.

• Yunohira Onsen and its cobbled slope 2.5 h

  About fifteen kilometres from the centre, an Edo-era spa climbing a 300-year-old cobbled slope, with wooden inns and four communal baths at 100 or 200 yen. It is what Yufuin was before tourism: quiet, aged and without a single soft-toy shop.

• Artegio and the Sanso Murata chocolate shop 1.25 h

  Private museum belonging to one of the benchmark ryokan, devoted to art connected with music, with a chocolate shop beside it. It is the purest expression of the Yufuin model: the ryokan that built culture instead of growing.

• Climbing Mount Yufu 4 h

  A round-trip trail to Mount Yufu's twin peaks, with panoramic views of the town and the Yufuin plain. This is not a stroll: the west peak, at 1,583 metres, calls for hauling yourself up almost vertical chains and crossing an exposed scrambling section where bottlenecks and falls occur, and the ground suffers frequent landslides. There and back by the front route takes about four hours. For an average walker, the honest advice is to go up only as far as the Matae junction or the east peak.

• Lake Kinrin at sunrise 1 h

  A lake with thermal mist visible on cold mornings.

• Shitanyu 1 h

  A thatched-roof public bath built on the shores of Lake Kinrin, one of Yufuin's most photographed onsen.

• The horse-drawn carriage 0.75 h booking

  It leaves from the station and runs past the rice paddies, Unagihime Shrine and Bussanji Temple, from March to December. It sells out before midday and tickets are sold at the station itself.

• Tsukahara Onsen and its steaming crater 2 h

  On the slope of Mount Garan, at 700 metres: strongly acidic, iron-rich water, among the most acidic in Japan, translucent green, and a short trail up to a steaming volcanic crater. The access road is narrow and it is awkward without a car.

• Unagihime Shrine and its thousand-year-old cedar 0.75 h

  Shrine listed in the Engishiki at the foot of Yufudake, whose legend explains the landscape: the goddess ordered the opening of the shore of the lake that filled the whole basin, and what was left is Lake Kinrin. Its cedar is over 1,000 years old and 38 metres tall, a national natural monument since 1934.

• Yufu River gorge 3.5 h booking

  In the Hasama and Shonai sector, a canyon of about twelve kilometres that they call 'the eastern Takachiho', with viewpoints and canyoning operators in summer.

• Yufuin folk craft village 1.25 h

  Compound of relocated houses with workshops in pottery, indigo dyeing, washi paper and bamboo, with demonstrations and short classes. It is the most respectable option in the craft category in town.

• Yufuin Michi-no-Eki 0.75 h

  Roadside station with vegetables, rice, eggs and dairy from the basin's farmers at local prices, and good views of Yufudake. It is the necessary counterpoint to the souvenir shops.

• Yufuin Music Festival 3.5 h booking only July or October-November (dates vary)

  Founded in 1975 as a 'small concert under the stars': chamber music in the civic centre and other venues around the town, run by volunteers, with performers paid only travel and lodging. It stopped in 2009 and was revived in 2016. Confirm the dates, which have varied.

• Bussanji Temple 1 h

  A Buddhist temple surrounded by trees and moss, popular for its serene atmosphere and the tunnel dug by the priest Zenkai. It belongs to the Rinzai school and was the administering temple of Unagihime shrine until the separation of Shinto and Buddhism under Meiji: the two are visited together, not separately.

• Craft beer and Oita sake 1.5 h

  There is a local microbrewery and a few taverns near the station. Realistic warning: Yufuin closes early, most shops pull the shutters down between 5 and 6, and anyone after a night out should sleep in Beppu.

• Small museums for a rainy day 1.5 h

  The three-dimensional art museum and the classic car museum are not essential, but they rescue a rainy afternoon with children.

• The town's small art museums 1.5 h

  Several boutique galleries and museums scattered around central Yufuin.

• The Yufu festival calendar 3 h only 29 April, 10 and 17 May, 15-16 August and October

  The Onsen Matsuri is on 29 April; the official opening of the Yufudake season, on 10 May; the Yunohira Onsen Matsuri, on 17 May; and the basin festival with fireworks, on 15 and 16 August. In October there is a food culture fair running all month.

• Yufuin Floral Village 1 h

  A miniature European-style theme village with quirky shops. To be honest about it: this is a commercial attraction with an English look and character-goods shops, with no real connection either to the works it evokes or to the traditions of the town.

• Yufuin Film Festival 3 h booking only late August

  An independent film festival held every August since 1976, one of the oldest in Japan, featuring screenings and talks with directors. To be precise: it takes place in late August, not in July, and is now at its fifty-first edition. There is also a second, separate event, devoted to cultural films and documentaries, in early June.

What only happens on specific dates

• The Yufu festival calendar 29 April, 10 and 17 May, 15-16 August and October
• Yufuin Music Festival July or October-November (dates vary)
• Yufuin Film Festival late August
• Shouting While Eating Beef Contest Sports Day (the second Monday of October)

Ready-made routes through Yufuin

Chains well with

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