Visiting onsen town Yufuin was part of my winter vacation 2012.
After leaving Nakatsu I arrived in Yufuin (湯布院) which is also situated in Oita Prefecture.
Oita is quite famous for onsen. Probably the most popular onsen town in Oita is Beppu.
Yufuin is maybe less popular, but still a lot of people come there for only one reason: RELAXATION!
With a population of roughly 11.000 it’s a really small town, featuring mountains, lakes and onsen. Yufuin was also the shooting location of the NHK drama “Kaze no haruka” (風のハルカ) .
Are you ready to spend a relaxing day in Yufuin with me?
After confirming when most shops would open (~ 9 a.m.) I left my hotel. It also had a small onsen, but nothing special. The nicer ryokan and hotels were all already booked out.
I recommend to reserve hotels, hostels etc. in advance especially during high season.
This is the long shopping street that leads from Yufuin Station towards the mountains.
Right opposite to my hotel I ran into the best shop EVER, so I made a separate blog entry to introduce it.
The shop is really easy to spot: it’s on the right side if you come from the station and opposite to “Yufuin Burger”.
And then it was shopping time! It was too cold to do anything else anyways.
Left: Totoro shop (also featured other Miyazaki Hayao characters)
Right: Cat shop (OMG!!! I could have spent hours there!)
The cat shop had 2 floors featuring various cat products (e.g. maneki neko). Obviously I couldn’t resist and bought a few things.
Also, in the 2nd floor there were a few REAL cats!! :D
All that shopping made me really hungry, so I had a little snack as it was still too early for lunch.
I love “takoyaki” and “okonomiyaki”, but I’ve never seen “bakudanyaki” so far. “Bakudan” means “bomb” and refers to the food in ball/bomb shape. .gif)
It was super yummy!
While you’re shopping you can also enjoy the awesome landscape (despite the cold).
And what would a onsen town be without the obligatory “onsen tamago“?
Apart from all the small shops there are also a few art museums in Yufuin.
In this glass house they had a lot of awesome wooden artwork!
Awww, so cute! Is this the Japanese version of Herbie?
Ice cream? No, thank you! I’m already freezing! XD
Finally it was time for lunch! As it was so cold I went with a dango vegetable soup. The dango in the soup were kind of strange … similar to mochi in soup, I guess.
Warmed up by my lunch, I continued to explore Yufuin.
Kappa lady and more beautiful landscape.
There were a lot of tourists around the lake that had some hot spots where you could warm up your cold feet or hands. :D
Yufuin: truly a onsen village!
A cute Monchhichi shop.
And then it was time for a coffee break.
I’ve seen everything I wanted. I shouldn’t have planned a full day for Yufuin, it’s not really necessary! You can easily use this as a short side trip from Oita or Beppu!
Took some more photos on my way back to the station.
Yufuin Burger: looks yummy, too bad that I didn’t have the chance to try any.
Remember, the cute cat sale booth is right opposite of that burger shop!
Aww, now that’s cute!
And this is Yufuin Station. Quite small, but with a nice waiting hall.
Then it was time to leave. This time I was heading to Miyazaki.
All in all I have to admit that I didn’t really like Yufuin all that much.
However, that’s just because I LOVE sightseeing more than relaxing and shopping. .gif)
Also, it’s definitely not a place where you should go alone – but I didn’t have a choice! ^-^;
Apparently there were mostly couples, families and female university students with their friends. I also saw a few foreigners.
My next entry will be about: Takachiho (Miyazaki Prefecture)
That was one of my absolute highlights, so I hope you’re looking forward to the post!
Thank you for reading!~.gif)
Hallo! c:
Ich verfolge deinen schönen Blog seit einiger Zeit aber hab mich nie getraut zu kommentieren, aber jetzt musste das sein, weil ich nämlich auch schon mal in Yufuin war :D
Da kommen echt viele Erinnerungen hoch; der Katzen-Shop hatte es mir auch sehr angetan, auch wenn ich im ersten Moment total erschlagen war :D Warst du zufällig auch im Ghibli-Shop mit all den Fanartikeln zu den Filmen? Den fand ich echt schön :)
Ich werde deinen Blog auf jeden Fall weiter verfolgen c:
Hallo Sev, danke für den lieben Kommentar und liebe Grüße in die alte Heimat! :D
Ja, der Katzenstand hat’s mir echt angetan und ich hab viel zu viel eingekauft und mich auch mit Mamoru (dem Künstler) viel zu lange unterhalten! *g*
Wenn du dir die Fotos nochmal ansiehst, wirst du ein Foto sehen, das ich vor dem Ghibli Shop gemacht habe. Ja, ich war drin und man wird fast erschlagen. Zum Glück bin ich kein Riesenfan, sonst hätte ich mich blöd gekauft. Bin mit leeren Händen wieder raus, hab mir aber dann im Katzenshop noch sehr viel gekauft! :sweatdrop2:
Sehr schön! Sieht sehr idyllisch aus! Warst du jemals in Hakone? Dort soll es ja auch sehr viele Onsen geben.
Zum Monchichi/Monchhichi: Steht sogar bei Wikipedia so! Mekrwürdig! Zudem wurde mir eben erst bewusst, dass das kleine Äffchen dann ja wohl nicht “montschitschi” heißt, sondern “mon itschi”, wenn es aus Japan kommt. Wir bösen Deutschen…
Ja, ich war zuletzt 2007 in Hakone! Ich möchte aber gerne mal wieder dort hin, gerne auch mal für 2 Tage.
Damals war das Wetter nicht so schön und wir konnten den Mt. Fuji auch nirgends entdecken.
Seit ich in Japan lebe, bin ich ein paar Mal vor den Kopf gestoßen worden, weil ich herausgefunden habe, dass gewisse Produkte gar nicht Deutsch sind! *g*
Hi, Thanks for sharing the photos! I get to see how Yufuin is like:)
You are very welcome! :)
Hi, I love your blog. It’s very informative since I’m considering to go to Kyushu this coming December. My question, how would you describe the weather if compared to Osaka and Tokyo? May I know the hotels/accommodation you went when you were there?
Thanks. :)
Hi, Mira. :)
Hm. I’ve been in Kyushu in winter many times and the weather was always a bit different, so it’s hard to describe. I had the feeling that Fukuoka and Saga prefectures were rather cold. I even experienced a snowstorm towards the end of December. Kagoshima and Miyazaki were a bit nicer, but it was still rather cold. I’d say it was only a little bit warmer than in Tokyo / Osaka around the same time.
Yakushima Island was warm and sunny but super cold with a lot of snow in the mountain area.
You can use “Rakuten Japan” to find accommodation.
I’ve been to Kyushu many times and thus stayed in many different places and hotels. It would be impossible to list them all now.
If you have a more specific question about an accommodation in a certain city, I could answer that, though.
Nice reading, got a few ideas for a visit :)
I’m becoming more and more interested in onsens! In the next trip I’m gonna visit Kinosaki, but in the (near) future I want to see Kyushu and onsens are a must there: Beppu, Kurokawa and, of course, Yufuin. Do you have any particular onsen ryokan or onsen to suggest? Thanks in advance!
In Kyushu?
Yes, my favorite onsen is in Sakurajima (Kagoshima). It’s called “Furusato Onsen”. ^__^
I meant in Yufuin. Anyway I’m checking also the onsen you mentioned, looks super cool! :)
Do you have other onsens you can recommend? In Kinosaki, Kusatsu Beppu or Kurokawa? Thanks!
I think I haven’t been to any onsen outside of my accommodations in Beppu. Have yet to visit Kinosaki and Kurokawa.
In Kusatsu there’s an awesome onsen outside. You’ll automatically run into it when you walk away fron the town center along the river.
I really should post about Kusatsu soon. I loved it a lot there and this is one of the onsen towns I want to visit again. :)
Oh would love a post about Kusatsu! Looking forward to it!