Takachiho Onsen (Takachiho no Yu)

What happened to Takachiho Onsen

“Takachiho Onsen” was the name used for a day bathhouse on the northern edge of Takachiho, the mountain town in the far north of Miyazaki Prefecture known for its gorge and its night kagura dances. The building is mapped on OpenStreetMap as Takachiho no Yu (international name Takachiho Onsen), beside the new Takachiho Unkaibashi road north of the town centre, and a visitor review noted that the sign read “Takachiho no Yu”.

It has closed. Onsen listing sites mark it “closed”, a visitor reported in November 2021 that it had shut, and the Takachiho Tourist Association does not list it among the town’s bathing spots. We found no official notice giving the closure date or the reason, and no plan to reopen. Because soaking was the whole point and the bath is gone, we list it as closed.

We checked whether “Takachiho Onsen” might mean something else. In Japanese, a search for 高千穂温泉 also brings up the Takachiho district of Makizono in Kirishima, Kagoshima, which is a separate place covered by our Kirishima Onsen guide. This listing is about Takachiho town in Miyazaki.

The bigger surprise for visitors is that Takachiho now has no hot spring bathing at all. The tourist association’s FAQ says plainly that there are no hot spring inns in the town. It points people to a public bath, Amanoiwato-no-yu, and notes that this is not a hot spring either.

Where to bathe in Takachiho instead

Amanoiwato-no-yu (天岩戸の湯). A public bath on high ground looking over the Iwato district, the area of Amano-Iwato Shrine. It has two large baths named after kagura figures, Tajikarao-no-yu and Uzume-no-yu, plus a sauna and a rest area for after your bath. The tourist association describes it as a public bath, not a hot spring.

Amanoiwato-no-yu	From outside Takachiho	Town residents
Junior high and up	¥500	¥350
70 and over, or with a disability	¥400	¥300
Elementary school	¥300	¥150

It is open 10:00 to 22:00 (17:00 on December 31) and closed on Wednesdays; when Wednesday is a holiday it closes on the next weekday instead. Address: 58 Iwato, Takachiho. Phone 0982-74-8288. There is parking for 60 cars.

Hotel Takachiho, Amaterasu-no-yu. The hotel in the Mitai town centre takes day bathers from 11:00 to 16:00, closed on Mondays. Adults pay ¥390, children ¥250, and under-3s go free. A towel costs ¥100 to buy and a bath towel ¥200 to rent, or bring your own. The tourist association does not say whether this is hot spring water.

Gokase Onsen Mori no Yado Kijiya. If you want real hot spring water, the tourist association lists this inn in Gokase, the next town to the west, and describes it as the only natural hot spring inn in northern Miyazaki. Check with the inn about day bathing before you go.

Neither Amanoiwato-no-yu nor Hotel Takachiho publishes a tattoo policy. Ask before you go.

Getting to Takachiho

Takachiho is remote, so most people come by car or on one of a few limited buses. Times below are from the Takachiho Tourist Association.

• From Kumamoto: about 2 hours by car from Kumamoto Airport. Without a car, the express “Aso” and “Takachiho” buses run from Kumamoto Station in about 3 hours, once a day, and need a booking. From Aso Station, the Asochiho bus takes about 1 hour 50 minutes, also once a day with a booking.
• From Fukuoka: about 3 hours by car from Fukuoka Airport, or the Gokase highway bus in about 3 hours 30 minutes (4 runs a day, booking required).
• From Miyazaki and Oita: take the JR limited express to Nobeoka (about 1 hour from Miyazaki, 2 hours from Oita), then a local bus to Takachiho, about 1 hour 30 minutes. By car it is about 40 minutes on Route 218 from the end of the expressway near Nobeoka.
• From other spa towns: about 1 hour 30 minutes by car from Kurokawa Onsen on Prefectural Road 11 and Route 325, or about 2 hours 30 minutes from Yufuin.

Inside the town there are taxis, a community bus, e-bike and bicycle rental.

When to go

Takachiho is busy all year with visitors to the gorge, the shrines and the kagura. The rowing boats on Takachiho Gorge are the big draw and sell out: they can only be booked online, from two weeks ahead until 9:00 two days before. A limited number of same-day tickets go on sale each morning at the boat office, and on October 22, 2026 the queue for those was 6 hours. Book ahead if the boats matter to you.

Kagura, the sacred masked dances linked to the Amano-Iwato myth, are performed in town, and the association’s site carries the night-kagura schedule and bookings. Pair an evening performance with a bath at Amanoiwato-no-yu, which stays open until 22:00 on most days. Remember that it closes on Wednesdays.

Where to stay nearby

Takachiho has hotels, ryokan and minshuku, but the tourist association says none of them are hot spring inns. Its accommodation list on takachiho-kanko.info is the place to start. For a stay with real hot spring water, look at Gokase next door, or base yourself at Kurokawa Onsen or Aso in Kumamoto and visit Takachiho as a long day trip.

Rules and etiquette

At Amanoiwato-no-yu and the hotel bath, follow ordinary Japanese bathhouse rules: wash before you get in, bathe naked (no swimsuits), keep towels out of the water, and tie up long hair. Do not bathe after drinking alcohol. No photos in the changing rooms or baths.

Safety notes

• Do not try to enter the closed building. The former Takachiho Onsen site is not open to visitors.
• Mountain roads: Route 218 and the roads from Aso and Kurokawa are winding and can be foggy. Allow extra time, especially at night.
• Heat: keep soaks and sauna sessions short and drink water, especially after a long day walking the gorge.
• Typhoons: heavy rain can close the gorge boats and mountain roads in late summer and autumn. Check the boat status, which the association updates each morning around 8:00.