Hi,
My name is Arno and i'm new with this forum. I will be visiting Japan for business purpose for 2 weeks. I'll be staying at Omiya in Saitama. I'm interested to go and try the famous Japanese Onsen. Can you recommend me which onsen i should visit with the price range and how to get there. I'm planning to have one of my weekend to stay over for one night in onsen inn. Thank you very much for the information and i'm looking forward for anyone's reply

Hi Arno,

The selection of an onsen will mostly depend whether you plan to travel by car or by train. From Omiya, you can easily take trains to Gunma-ken, Nagano-ken and Tochigi-ken. By car, you probably want to go toward Tochigi-ken, as there is a direct highway from Omiya...

Train can be pretty expensive in Japan, especially if you need to take the shinkansen - which is rather recommended for long distance. However, if you go to Tochigi-ken, there are several rather cheap trains for that journey, so it might be a good alternative.

You might want to check our Secret Onsen website, which has an extensive list of onsen in Tochigi-ken.

Personnally, I would check first places around Okukinu, which has some of the finest onsen in the Kanto area. Among them, I would suggest to check Hatcho Yu and Kani Yu. There is even a guide for that area on these forum, which includes access information and pictures. Okukinu onsen are located in the woods, and reached by a mini-trek from the bus terminal (in fact, both ryokan have a bus to pick up visitors if they do not want to walk).



To give you an idea of the price, if you travel by yourself, you probably will need to count on 10'500 yen for the return trip (including train and bus), plus the night in the choosen ryokan (check the price on their web site, as those can significantly change with the date).

Other famous onsen resorts in Tochigi-ken are Shiobara and of course Nikko. Nikko is less interesting for the onsen themselves, but has lots of places to visit. Shiobara can be reached by shinkansen followed by a short bus trip, and again you will find several great onsen there. One of my favorite is Oami Onsen. The cost of such trip would be a little higher due to the shinkansen cost.



There are many alternatives. You also could take a bus to an onsen, including overnight buses for some destinations. But this require more planning, as you can guess.

Hope this helps,

sanji

Dear Sanji,
thanks for the quick response....
Is the person in the onsen inn can speak English? because i would need some help in getting there, especially when using multiple trains, where it can be a bit confusing. From your recommendation which is the best value for money? And also Do we need to make a reservation if we want to stay overnight?
Thank you

cmmkima wrote (View Post): › Is the person in the onsen inn can speak English? because i would need some help in getting there, especially when using multiple trains, where it can be a bit confusing.

Virtually not. Although some people might understand a little of English, you can not count on it. On the other hand, you should have no problem with that, as the difficulty might only be to reach the place. With a clear schedule you should be fine.

cmmkima wrote (View Post): › From your recommendation which is the best value for money?

I would recommend to stay at Hatcho Yu, which is slightly cheaper, and visit Kani Yu for a bath only.

cmmkima wrote (View Post): › And also Do we need to make a reservation if we want to stay overnight?

Absolutely, both the places can be really popular at some time of the year, and you can not count on availability.

sanji