Tsunagiyu Onsen Kurokawa

Tsunagiyu Onsen is part of the Kurokawa Onsen group in Minami-Oguni town, Kumamoto prefecture, where chloride-sulfate waters flow through one of Kyushu's most atmospheric onsen villages — a collection of traditional ryokan clustered in a forested river valley where visitors purchase a single wooden pass (tegata) permitting bathing at any of 24 different inns' baths. The Kurokawa system of rotating outdoor baths through the village creates a uniquely social and exploratory Japanese onsen experience, where each ryokan offers a different rotenburo character — riverside, cave, hillside, or garden — using the same thermal spring system. The surrounding Aso Kujū National Park, with the world's largest volcanic caldera and Kujū highland grasslands known for Kusenbo mushrooms and Wagyu beef, provides an extraordinary Kyushu natural backdrop.