Travel Guide to Yufuin, Oita
way from busy city life, the wilderness of Oita Prefecture awaits you!
While its unspoiled scenery will keep you busy with great hiking, traditional shrines, temples, and great options for visitors seeking green or blue tourism opportunities, there is another thing worth seriously exploring – the hot springs.
Indeed, hot springs or “onsen” in Oita are numerous and exceptional. In fact, Oita has the most hot springs in Japan with over 4,500! This also includes one of the country’s largest hot springs areas, Yufuin.
Tranquil, quaint, and blessed with charming sceneries of peaceful fields, Yufuin developed into a popular onsen town with streets lined with delicious food, boutiques selling high-quality local crafts, and petite art museums.
With rich artistic and cultural sights mixed with an air of refined, up-market sophistication, Yufuin will not only delight hot spring aficionados and nature lovers but those who enjoy a return to traditional skills and crafts.
The town where the wildflowers grow in mist
The Japanese writer Tanabe Seiko once wrote of Yufuin as “an ordinary countryside, just a countryside, a countryside of wildflowers” and truly, it shows.
Everywhere you look the countryside of Yufuin is framed beautifully by the flowers and nature that surround it, but there is another natural phenomenon that awaits for early risers.
While visiting during autumn, we were fortunate to be greeted with the sight of dense morning fog misting the tall grass and flower buds with morning dew.
Supposedly this morning mist is predominantly viewed during autumn and winter in Yufuin as the seasonal cold air reacts with the warmth of nearby Lake Kinrin. The steam from the hot spring waters makes the mornings look like you awoke at the bottom of a misty lake!
As the sun begins to warm the air, the fog rolls off the surrounding mountains to reveal Mount Yufu, an extinct volcano with an interesting tale. During ancient times, Yufuin wasn’t a basin but an actual lake. One day, the goddess of Mount Yufu called Unagi-hime thought to herself, “If all the water in the lake dried up, the people would be able to use the fertile land at the bottom” and so, ordered the demon Kesaki Gongen to create a rift in the surrounding mountains to drain the area, leaving only Lake Kinrin behind. Now, it is said that the goddess is enshrined in the basin at the local Unagi-hime Jinja shrine named after her. The demon Kesaki Gongen is celebrated at the top of the mountain where he broke it.
To this day, the twin peaks of Mount Yufu is famous for its unique shape and provides the perfect backdrop for many of the scenic photos of the area.
Wild cosmos flowers growing in Yufuin
Mount Yufu and its famous twin peaks
What to Do
Yufuin Floral Village
ne of the main attractions to the area is the Yufuin Floral Village, a mini theme park modeled after the historical villages of the Cotswolds area in England. The Cotswolds are also famous for being the filming location for many iconic films like Harry Potter.
Though more of a shopping town than theme park, the Yufuin Floral Village shop interiors are generally quite petite and narrow, decorated with colourful flowers, retro lamps fixtures, and exteriors reminiscent of old English architecture. With the mountain ranges in the distance and the cute store-lined street in the foreground, Yufuin Floral Village creates the perfect ambiance for photos, where you can recreate the mystical worlds of your favourite fantasy films or books.
Many of the stores are souvenir and gift shops generally themed around franchises from your childhood like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit, Moomins, Studio Ghibli to modern ones like Shaun the Sheep and of course, Disney.
Another major area is dedicated to the 1974 anime series “Heidi, Girl of the Alps” where you can find life-size character cutouts for photos, Heidi themed goods, a popcorn stand, and also a screening area to watch episodes.
Other attractions include petting zoos and feeding stations, owl and cat cafes, local handicraft shops, and a small food market.
Patting the goats in the “Heidi, Girl of the Alps” area
Feeding station to feed the rabbits
Shopping on Yunotsubo Street
ith around 70 different stores to see, browsing through Yunotsubo Street is an exciting opportunity to see what local goodies Yufuin has to offer.
You’ll find everything from cute cafes, stylish restaurants to shops selling high-quality handicrafts, local street foods, art galleries, and small museums. There is also the mother of all Studio Ghibli stores, Donguri no Mori, also affectionately called the Totoro store by some.
Yunotsubo Street is quite diverse in offerings ranging from traditional souvenirs to modern sweets and goods. Nearby, the small plaza known as Yasuragi Yokocho preserves an old-fashioned charm. There are 14 shops in total where you can find the famous purindora (a Japanese sweet pancake usually with red bean filling but in this version, a custard pudding – one of the must-eats in the area).
Since the overall town’s layout is quite compact, it makes exploring easy by foot. Though be warned, many of the stores close early between 5PM or 6PM.
Yufuin has a treasure trove of handcraft stores to explore
Impressive glass and music box display at Orgel’s Forest
Art galleries and museums
omething refreshingly different in this resort town is the amount of art galleries and museums you can visit ranging from highbrow to lowbrow.
Lovers of modern art will enjoy the COMICO ART MUSEUM designed by famed architect, Kengo Kuma. Artists such as Takashi Murakami, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Yoshitomo Nara have whole gallery spaces dedicated to their works showcased here and the art museum showcases creators of manga, novels, and movies.
Artegio is another contemporary art museum that combines music and art. It aims to create a world where music and art – audio and vision – directly inspire each other and the works on display are one of a kind, all with instrument motifs.
For something on the fun side, Yufuin has a trick eye museum called Trick 3D Art Yufuin where you can enjoy self-made “artworks” posing with their optical illusion paintings.
Alternatively, get your hands dirty at the Yufuin Mingei Mura, a folk crafts village devoted to various traditional craftsmanship like pottery, glass-blowing, and ceramics. They also offer workshops for washi papermaking and indigo dyeing.
This is only a small list of the various other art galleries and museums that you should check out in Yufuin but all works are created by artists with special connections to the area.
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Lake Kinrin
ollowing Yunotsubo Street all the way to the foot of Mount Yufu is Lake Kinrin, famous for the mystical way the morning mist lingers over the lake’s surface during the colder seasons.
This is because at the bottom of Lake Kinrin there are two springs: one normal and the other a hot spring. The combination of cold and hot water creates hot steam which rises and makes the mist.
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Horse drawn carriage around town
hile exploring the town you might also hear the trotting of a horse-drawn carriage.
The Yufuin Horse Carriage is a sightseeing carriage taking passengers through Yufuin’s famous sights and various shrines nearby.
Horse carriages have been a feature of the town since 1975 when Oita experienced
a big earthquake and the carriages were devised to help revive tourism to the area. As the carriages are Polish-made, their presence in the town makes Yufuin stand out from other Japanese resort towns.
If you would like to add a European touch to your Yufuin experience, the horse carriage tours need to be booked at the Yufuin Onsen Tourism Association in front of JR Yufuin Station and can be booked on the day. A ride lasts for about 1 hour and costs 1,600 yen for adults and 1,100 yen for children.
Photo Credit: Planetyze
What to Eat
esides the beautiful countryside, there is another local treat in abundance and that is food.
Yufuin has some of the most delicious looking street food to feast your eyes on ranging from the trendy cute tapioca milk teas and sweets to classic Japanese street food like grilled seafood and fried foods. There is something to eat at every corner!
For foodies wanting to know what’s good, the local food specialties of Yufuin are yuzu kosho (Japanese seasoning made from chili peppers, yuzu citrus peel, and salt), croquettes, purindora, swiss rolls, and Bungo Beef which is a local beef breed special to Oita Prefecture.
Although we wished we could sample all there was on offer, here are our food highlights:
Grilled Softshell Shrimp Skewers
Huge Crab Stick
Giant Takoyaki with 10 Fillings (ginger, tempura bits, clam, corn, cabbage, shimeji mushroom, mochi, sausage, squid, and quail egg)
Cuttlefish and Shrimp and Onion Surimi (Fish Paste Cakes) at Houkyuuan in Yasuragi Yokocho
Where to Stay
s a resort town so close to mountains and nature, the popular accommodation style in Yufuin are traditional ryokans.
These are perfect for those seeking a private getaway where you can enjoy the amenities the lodging has to offer and the majority of hotels have hot spring baths for guests. Most of the enjoyment of your stay comes from bathing as hot springs are seen as a luxurious treat, but the best stays are those that come with
a rotenburo (open-air bath) to get a great view of the Yufuin landscape especially at night when the stars come out.
Though most ryokans and hotels offer rotenburos that are open to all hotel guests, there are some that offer a private bath in your hotel room where you can fully immerse yourself in Yufuin’s rich nature and a private view of Mount Yufu’s twin peaks.
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A rotenburo (open-air bath) has a great view of the Yufuin landscape especially at night when the stars come out.
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Oohh, looks so beautiful there and the food looks amazing.
Thanks Ann-Marie for reading!
Yes, Yufuin is definitely a hidden gem of a place :)