Most number of Onsen visits in a day!!! | MerRyan: Kinosaki Onsen Guide in Hyogo, Japan 城崎温泉
* added subtitles for those who have difficulties understanding MerRyan's accent and voice!
Kinosaki may seem like your typical onsen town but it is not!
The onsens or hot springs itself are located outside the ryokans or inns. Hence, guests have to go out of the inns to enjoy the baths. The baths have unique features of their own and are located all over the little town.
MerRyan helps you by visiting all the onsens and introducing the features to you so you can decide which to go to!
The streets are lined with willow trees and look charming regardless of the seasons or time of day. During bath time, you can hear the clacking of the getas, or clogs. Visitors are also dressed in yukatas - bathrobes provided complimentary by the inns.
Here are the 7 onsens I mentioned in the video, they have certain closing days which have changed due to the closure of Mandara no Yu:
- Sato no Yu: 1 pm - 9 pm, closed Mondays
- Jizou Yu: 7 am to 11 pm, closed Fridays
- Yanagi Yu: 3 pm to 11 pm, closed Thursdays
- Ichi no Yu: 7 am to 11 pm, closed Wednesdays
- Mandara Yu (closed during visit but has reopened in December 2017): 3 pm - 11 pm, closed Wednesdays
- Gosho no Yu: 7 am to 11 pm, closed 1st & 3rd Thursdays
- Kou no Yu: 7 am to 11 pm, closed Tuesdays
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Hi I'm MerRyan, a merlion from Singapore, and I love to travel!
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マーライオンです、初めまして!
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DYA717 Oct 4, 2016 Kinosaki Onsen, Hyogo
DYA717 Oct 4, 2016 Hyogo
At 5 a.m. I went downstairs to the hotel’s onsen furo. Nice furo. Today’s breakfast was from Family Mart. Some kind of miso meat wrap with tossed cabbage salad. Sorry, no NATTO breakfast. OK, time for BURA-BURA. I put on my yukata, went to the hotel lobby and selected one tall geta and went boogie on down the street! NOT! I would get sore feet walking just 20-30 steps with that geta! I just posed for what could have been my BURA-BURA outfit but then I changed back into my Hawaiian shorts, T-shirt and my off-trail jogging shoes. I walked up to the Kinosaki ropeway or what I call the cablecar. It’s about a 15-minute walk but it took me 30-minutes as I was gawking at a few places like temples and onsens I planned to visit later. At the base of the ropeway, there is a gateway to the Osenji Temple. On the side of the temple gate, there is a steeeeeeep walkway up the mountain. OR, you can catch the cablecar which stops at the halfway point which is the actual temple itself. I went on to the top of the ropeway and got some nice pictures of the view. There is a red target set up. You can purchase clay discs and try your luck at hitting the target. Supposedly your wish will come true if you hit it! On the way down, I stopped off halfway at the Osenji Temple to take pictures.
When I checked in at the hotel, I was given a 7-onsen pass and a little map with the 7 onsen pictures and a place to stamp the onsen’s rubber stamp. You can walk into any of the featured onsens, stamp your onsen map, scan your pass in and get a free furo-onsen bath. If I have 5 onsens’ stamps, I get a prize from my hotel. Well, I got my 5 onsen stamps and feel like one shriveled prune. When I got off the ropeway,I went to the Kouno-yu bath. AU-WE! They close on Tuesday. Walked past the Mandara-yu. I was too early as they open at 3 p.m. I went down the street to the Goshono-yu bathouse. Wow,nice place. They have an outdoor bath (RO-TEN-BU-RO) which is the best I’ve seen. It is against the hillside, with a waterfall of hot onsen water. I can just imagine during the winter time, sitting in the hot outdoor onsen and having the snow falling on my head! Uuuuuuuuuuu neat! Too bad. All the onsens have large “NO PHOTOS” signs around so I just locked up my camera in the locker.
Lunch time! I stopped at the RAN Café. Wow, nice place. Had a yakisoba. Next was the Ichino-yu which was right next to the Goshono-yu. I then waited until 3 p.m. and walked over to the Jizou-yu. Nice place! I took a quick dip at Ichono-yu. Then on to Satono-yu by the train station and finally to the Yanagi-yu which is the smallest onsen bath on this circuit. A quick dip there and then more BURA-BURA. I walked into the Sorella Café hoping to find a light snack for my dinner. I had their ham & egg sandwich and a Lowenbrau beer and called it a day. I got my 5 stamps. So what did I get? I had a choice between a special hotel chopsticks or a rice paddle. I chose the paddle!