Onsen × Sushi — sea fish by seaside springs

Kinosaki — bathhouse hopping and crab season

Kinosaki Onsen is about 2 hours 20 minutes from Kyoto on the 'Kinosaki' limited express, or 2 hours 40 minutes from Osaka on the 'Kounotori'. Each of the seven public bathhouses costs ¥800 for adults; the one-day Yumepa pass is ¥1,500, and overnight guests receive free passes.

For sushi, Kinosaki's official tourism site (Visit Kinosaki) introduces Orizuru as the town's premier sushi restaurant since its founding in 1942. It opens 11:00–13:30 and 17:00–20:00 and closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There is an English menu, but only Japanese is spoken. Okesho, a fishmonger near the station, lets you choose fish on the ground floor and have it prepared upstairs, serving sashimi, seafood bowls and crab (main store 11:00–19:00).

The Kinosaki Onsen Tourism Association calls November 2026 to March 2027 its 'Crab Kingdom' season.

From Kanazawa's Omicho Market to Wakura Onsen on Noto

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Totti CC BY-SA 4.0 View original page

Kanazawa's Omicho Market gathers about 170 shops and is around 15 minutes' walk from Kanazawa Station. The market's official site lists its sushi shops: Morimori Sushi Omicho is a conveyor-belt sushi shop open 8:00–16:30 every day, and Sushi Enome buys directly from Enome fishing port on Notojima island and from Kanazawa Port (10:00–16:00, irregular closing days).

Wakura Onsen is about 90 minutes from Kanazawa on the 'Noto Kagaribi' limited express, then about 5 minutes by bus from Wakura-Onsen Station. Since the 2024 earthquake, train and bus services and the opening of inns and restaurants have changed, so check the tourism association's status pages before you go. The public bath costs ¥500 for adults, and at Yumoto Plaza you can boil eggs in the spring.

Yunokawa Onsen and the Hakodate Morning Market

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OraMAAG CC BY 4.0 View original page

From Yunokawa Onsen the tram takes about 31 minutes to Hakodate Station (¥240). The Hakodate Morning Market beside the station opens from 5:00 in May–December and 6:00 in January–April until early afternoon, and is known for seafood bowls and squid (hours vary by shop). We could not confirm specific sushi shops in Yunokawa on an official tourism site, so none are listed here.

Ideas for the future

A session at a hot spring inn where a sushi chef teaches you to make nigiri for your own dinner is listed as an idea only. It is not scheduled and cannot be booked.

Browse all onsen

Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0

Kinosaki Onsen

城崎温泉

Hyogo · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 63

Chloride

Yukata and wooden sandals, a willow-lined river, seven public bathhouses to hop between: here the town's baths, not the inn's, are the point.

Totti · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wakura Onsen

和倉温泉

Ishikawa · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 42

Chloride

An 82.7 °C salt spring on the shore of Nanao Bay. The New Year's Day earthquake of 2024 shut all 21 inns; now the lights are coming back one by one.

OraMAAG · CC BY 4.0

Yunokawa Onsen

湯の川温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 7

Chloride

Five minutes from the airport, at the end of the tram line: a spring of 4,861 litres a minute in the middle of a working port city.

Booking

2 days: Kyoto to Kinosaki for bathhouses and sushi

Bathhouses are free for overnight guests (checked October 2026). JR fares, lodging and meals were not confirmed; check with each operator and restaurant

2 days: sushi at Omicho Market, a night at Wakura Onsen

The only confirmed cost is the ¥500 public bath (checked October 2026). JR fares, sushi and lodging not confirmed