Kinosaki Onsen: Japan’s Most Romantic Town for Gay Couples

Willow canals, private ryokans and seven historic bathhouses: the Japan honeymoon stop most itineraries miss

Most couples who plan a Japan honeymoon spend a long time deliberating between Tokyo and Kyoto, then add Hakone as an onsen option because it appears on every list. Kinosaki Onsen, a small town on the Sea of Japan coast in Hyogo Prefecture, appears on almost none of them. That oversight is worth correcting.

Kinosaki has been a destination for Japanese travellers since the 8th century, when a Buddhist monk is said to have prayed here for a thousand days before the town’s hot springs emerged from the earth. It has been doing essentially the same thing ever since: drawing people who want to slow down, get warm, and spend unhurried time with someone they like being around.

What Kinosaki actually is

Kinosaki is a single street, roughly a kilometre long, running alongside a willow-lined canal. On either side: wooden ryokans, small restaurants, sake shops, and the occasional confectionery selling yuzu-flavoured sweets. Seven public bathhouses, each architecturally distinct and fed by different springs, are distributed along and around the main street.

Guests move between them in yukata robes and wooden geta sandals, the sound of which on stone pavement has become one of the town’s defining sensory details. There are no casinos, no beach clubs, no rooftop bars. The town’s entire infrastructure is oriented around bathing, eating, and being somewhere beautiful at a pace that most international travel does not allow.

Kinosaki receives far fewer foreign visitors than Hakone or Beppu, which means you are more likely to experience it as Japanese travellers do: as a real place rather than an attraction.

The onsen circuit

Guests staying at a Kinosaki ryokan receive a free pass to all seven public bathhouses for the duration of their stay. The bathhouses each keep slightly different hours, and some are closed on rotating days of the week, so a small amount of planning is worthwhile. Your ryokan will advise. The etiquette is straightforward: wash thoroughly before entering the communal bath, no swimwear, tattoos are a complicated subject at some bathhouses though the situation is improving.

The best bathhouses for couples

Goshono-yu is the town’s most architecturally impressive, a grand wooden structure with indoor and outdoor baths at different temperatures. Mandara-yu is the oldest in the circuit and the most atmospheric, a small wooden building that feels unchanged from a century ago. Kono-yu, perched on a hillside above the town, has an outdoor bath looking out over the rooftops.

Where to stay

Nishimuraya Honkan is Kinosaki’s finest ryokan and one of the best in Japan. The building dates to the Meiji era, rooms are full tatami with in-room cypress baths, and dinner is kaiseki served course by course in your room by a dedicated attendant. Booking well in advance is essential, particularly for weekend stays and the autumn foliage season in October and November.

Nishimuraya has a second property, Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei, which is slightly more contemporary in feel and marginally easier to book. Both are operated by the same family and share the same kitchen standards.

For couples who want something smaller and less formal, a handful of boutique ryokans along the main street offer the same yukata-and-bathhouse experience at a lower price point. Our specialists can advise based on your dates and preferences.

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Japan Gay Honeymoon: Tokyo, Kinosaki Onsen & Kyoto

Tailor-made Holiday

Japan gives you something very few honeymoon destinations can: the trip can change completely every few days without ever feeling disjointed. One night you can be at an omakase counter high above Tokyo, two days later eating kaiseki in a ryokan and soaking in hot spring water in Kinosaki, then finishing in Kyoto with temple districts, gardens and some of the best small-scale dining in the country. That variety is the appeal.

9 days tailor-made from £8,755 per person View trip

Getting there

Kinosaki sits on the San’in Coast, accessible from Kyoto in roughly two hours on the Kounotori limited express, which runs several times daily. From Tokyo, the most practical routing is Shinkansen to Osaka or Kyoto, then the limited express north. The journey through the mountains and down toward the coast is worth paying attention to.

Kinosaki has no airport. It does not need one.

LGBTQ+ travel in Kinosaki

Kinosaki is a conservative, rural town, and it is worth being straightforward about what that means in practice. Japan as a whole has no national anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, and outside major cities the visibility of queer life is limited. Same-sex marriage was legalised in January 2025, which marks a significant shift nationally, but rural Japan moves at its own pace.

In practical terms for LGBTQ+ couples visiting Kinosaki: the town’s ryokans and bathhouses operate with the discretion and professionalism that Japanese hospitality consistently delivers. Nishimuraya Honkan has welcomed international same-sex couples without issue. The public bathhouses are separated by gender rather than sexuality, and the etiquette-focused culture means that fellow guests are unlikely to be your concern.

Kinosaki is not Shinjuku Ni-chome. It is also not unwelcoming. It is a place where the quality of attention you receive is high, where the focus is on your comfort rather than your identity, and where two people who want to spend two days doing very little in a very beautiful place will find exactly that.

Out Of Office has been planning Kinosaki stays for LGBTQ+ couples as part of broader Japan itineraries for years. We know the properties, we brief our clients on what to expect, and we are available throughout the trip if anything requires navigation.

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How to add Kinosaki to your Japan itinerary

Kinosaki works best as a two-night stop between Tokyo and Kyoto, or as an extension at the end of a Kyoto stay. Two nights is enough to complete the bathhouse circuit at a proper pace, have dinner twice at Nishimuraya, and walk the main street slowly enough to remember it.

It is the part of a Japan honeymoon that people tend to talk about most when they get home. Not because it is the most dramatic, but because it is where the trip stopped moving.

Speak to our Japan specialists to include Kinosaki in your itinerary.