⁃ Kurokawa consists of thirty onsen-inns (ryokan, 温泉旅館), all with a plethora of different baths. Kurokawa is renowned for its onsen-hopping scheme (温泉巡り), where the ryokan you stay at will give you a wooden disk (手形) that consists of three tickets to visit participating baths. (You can always pay for more). Walking around (driving for baths further away) and hopping bath to bath is one of the most relaxing ways to spend a day.

⁃ Located near the Aso-Kuju National Park (阿蘇くじゅう国立公園), there are multiple waterfalls, hiking trails, rivers, and other beautiful locations to drive to. I highly recommend driving to Mount Aso (阿蘇山), an active volcano, as the view makes the drive one of the best in the country.

⁃ The food, like anywhere in Japan, is phenomenal. The highlights are the region’s wagyu and dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese, etc).

⁃ To and from: 1 hour, 1.5 hours, and 2 hours drive from Kumamoto (熊本空港) and Oita (大分空港) airports and Fukuoka respectively. Kurokawa does not have a train station and to enjoy the surrounding scenery, driving is ideal.

⁃ Within: drive

⁃ The Kurokawa Onsen website is a nice centralized platform with all of the town’s ryokans, I recommend you choose from there based on your various requirements.

⁃ Most ryokans have baths that only guests can enjoy (not part of the onsen-hopping), so one option would be to stay at different ryokans each night.

⁃ Alternatively, if you stay at one ryokan longer (usually 3+ nights) than their average guest, starting from the third night they will serve you dinners they usually don’t serve so you don’t end up eating the same thing twice.

⁃ At the minimum, I’d recommend two nights so you get at least one whole day to enjoy Kurokawa, and if possible at least three to spend one whole day for Kurokawa and another for the National Park.