Hot springs in Kurokawa

A forested hot spring village hidden in a deep gorge of the Chikugo River valley in northern Kumamoto Prefecture. Every ryokan here has its own outdoor rotenburo carved into the forest. The nyuto tegata, a cedar bathing pass carved on-site, allows visitors to enter three outdoor baths across different properties. There are no neon signs and no modern facades. The village agreed on that collectively in the 1980s, and it saved the town.