Kinosaki Onsen: Japan's must-visit winter destination

Japan’s delightfully quaint Kinosaki Onsen offers up a small-town adventure for the mind, body and soul.

The charming town of Kinosaki Onsen is a must-visit winter retreat when you next find yourself in Japan. A cosy town of just 3500 residents, it boasts 74 ryokans (Japanese inns) in total, a fact that has resulted in locals considering their home as one giant ryokan.

Onsen, Kinosaki Onsen, Kansai, Japan — One of the town’s seven onsens.

The train station is the entrance to the town, located in Hyogo Prefecture, within the Kansai region, and if you arrive between November and March you will be greeted by a sculpture of two large crab claws signalling that it is snow crab season (there is also a display of geta or traditional Japanese wooden shoes, each representing one of the aforementioned ryokans). Passing through these sculptural ‘arches’, the roads of the town are fashioned as corridors, as if in a home, and the seven onsen (hot springs) found here are the baths. Sweetly, the town also offers free-to-use umbrellas at the station, along with free shuttle buses, all of which add to the charming community feel here.

Explore the town on foot

Walking, even in the winter chill, is a treat in Kinosaki Onsen, as the town is made up of a series of canals and rivers, with beautiful bridges on each block. Some houses on the outskirts of the town centre even have their own individual bridges. In certain ways the whole place reminds me of Amsterdam with its historic buildings alongside arched bridges.

Kinosaki Onsen, Kansai, Japan — Even in the winter chill, walking is a treat in Kinosaki Onsen.

Climb Mount Daishi to Onsenji Temple

After exploring the ‘corridors’ of the town, take the time to strike out further afield to get a different view. Climbing Mount Daishi to Onsenji Temple affords a stunning vista over Kinosaki Onsen and its surroundings. In ancient times, when the hot springs in Kinosaki were first discovered, they were considered gifts from the guardian deity, making the waters sacred. As a result, before you could enter the waters you had to hike to this temple and pray to the onsen guardian for permission to soak in them and receive their healing powers. Those who completed the task were given a ladle that effectively acted as a ticket to enter the onsen.

Visit Kono-yu in town

Back in town, visit Kono-yu, the source of the hot springs near Kinosaki Gelato Cafe Chaya. The temperature of the water here is 81 degrees, so you can only put your hand close to the steam to warm up or pop a finger into the water for a split second. It takes just 11 minutes to perfectly boil an egg in the waters; visit the adjacent tamago (egg) store to give it a try.

Onsenji Temple in the snow, Kansai, Japan — Pray to the onsen guardian for permission to receive their healing powers.

Soak in each of the town’s seven onsens

While the daytime is about exploring, at night the town comes alive with onsen hoppers wandering to and from onsens and ryokans. It is quite a sight to see, with people dressed in colourful yukata (lightweight kimono) and illuminated by the hazy glow of gas lamps; it comes complete with its own soundtrack too of geta click-clacking through the streets.

Guests staying at any of Kinosaki Onsen’s ryokans are given a QR code pass which allows you to enter any of the town’s seven onsens, the waters in which contain sodium, calcium and chloride, all of which are known for their aiding digestion and treating fatigue, nerve and muscle pain. If you’re not staying at a ryokan you can still feel the benefits of the water for an entry fee of $8 to $9, or you might want to consider buying a yumepa (onsen pass) for $15, allowing access to all of the town’s onsens.

Each onsen has its own unique charm and character. Head to Mandara-Yu bathhouse if you are a history buff as legend has it that this onsen was founded by a Buddhist monk named Dochi Shonin, who is credited with bringing forth Kinosaki Onsen’s healing hot springs water having uttered a prayer, or ‘mandara’, for 1000 days. Satono-Yu, meanwhile, offers for a slightly more Western experience, with this bath house filled with mosaics and columns reminiscent of the Grecian style.

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

Spend the night at Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei

As the night stretches on, the streets become increasingly quiet as visitors find respite at their chosen ryokan. One of the most luxurious is Nishimuraya Honkan, which can lay claim to over 160 years of history, while its sister property (and my home from home for the night), Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei, is also totally divine. Here you can sip a welcome drink at the spacious hotel lobby bar before finding your name written on a card at the entrance to your room. The food is also amazing, served in your room and featuring the famous local snow crab during the winter months.

Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei, Kansai, Japan — The luxurious Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei is totally divine.

Discover Kinosaki Onsen’s art and crafts scene

While water is a focus in Kinosaki Onsen, I wake the next day to discover the vibrant art and crafts scene. The only place in Japan which continues the traditional production of straw craft, while preserving the original skills and techniques of the past, the four certified craftsmen left in the country are all found here. Pop into Kamiya Mingei Shop, located on Kiyamachi Street, to see straw crafts made by third generation straw craftsman, Kamiya Toshiaki, and take a workshop (book at least a week ahead at visitkinosaki.com to guarantee a place). And a visit to the town’s Straw Craft Museum, where a wide range of local straw crafts are permanently on display, and the recently renovated Kinosaki International Arts Center with its exhibitions, performances and creative work space, are also a fascinating and worthy investment of time.

Traditional straw crafts, Kansai, Japan — Traditional straw crafts still thrive here.

As I explore the arts scene, I also come across some of the recently opened cafes in the town. I can happily recommend Kinosaki Burger where you should order a Tajima beef burger, or take a seat at Un to read books from its in-store library while enjoying a hot chocolate. And after such an incredibly expansive experience of art, history and Japanese lifestyle and hospitality, end your trip to Kinosaki Onsen with an espresso tonic at OFF Kinosaki while you fathom just how much is packed into the town’s totally delightful yet wonderfully modest proportions.

Ebony was a guest of Japan National Tourism Organization and Toyooka City.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

Kinosaki Onsen: Japan’s must-visit winter destination