Kusatsu Hot Spring Town

So the original intent of this trip was not to visit Kusatsu Hot Springs. But the hot springs ended up as the main highlight for sure. The original purpose was so that I could drive my car up the famous mountain roads of Mount Haruna. The famous Japanese cartoon from 1995 called “Initial D” had many races on that mountain. So I wanted to experience it. Nathan and I bought our Toyota AE86 cardboard replicas at one of the gift shops of the area.

Unfortunately the weather on the mountain was hilariously bad. It was rainy on the way up and once we made it to the top, you couldn’t see 20 feet across the lake due to the fog. We got out and ate lunch at a restaurant and walked around a bit anyways.

Its not the greatest video, but I mounted my GoPro to my windshield and took a time-lapse during the drive.

We rented an Airbnb at the bottom of the mountain, but we really didn’t consider what was around it. We actually booked the house only 2 days in advance. So surroundings weren’t really a priority. I just wanted to drive the mountain. So we headed into the town of Kusatsu a few hours ahead of our check in time. And we found the epicenter of hot springs!

There is a giant hot spring in the middle of the town square and it delivers water to all the onsens surrounding the town square.

First we bought tickets to a little performance. The water comes out of the source at 203degrees Fahrenheit. So this town developed a water cooling technique many centuries ago and they do performances now to showcase it.

After that, Nathan and I went to the car and drove to the Airbnb house to drop our stuff off. While Caroline and Heather hit up some onsens. The first one they went to was free and the water was 123degrees Fahrenheit! So they couldn’t even dip their feet in barely. So next they went to a really nice facility with different temperatures for you to choose. It was around $10 per person.

The airbnb was only a 7 minute walk from the town square. So Nathan and I parked the car and walked back. Now without the car, I was free to have some beer! They had some local brewery stuff at vendors on the street. And in Japan you are allowed to walk around with open containers. Therefore, I did so.

By the time I had my beer and walked around, the girls were done at the onsen and we went out for some dinner. We went to a restaurant on the 2nd floor of a building in the square so we could look out the window down at the main hot spring. It was really cool. We let the kids eat at their own table and they thought it was so special.

After that we went out and walked around the town square in the dark.

Then we made our way to probably the coolest part of the area. There was a park about 5 minutes away that was an outdoor hot spring and it was illuminated at night. The source of the water is super hot, but depending on how the flow was diverted, changed the temperature. So we walked around and felt some of the pools. The steam from the water and the lights all around created a really amazing atmosphere.

We even found two aliens coming down from outer space!

We got in one of them and walked around a bit.

After that, we walked back to our house for the night! We got to the house around 9pm, got showers, slept, and left the house around 9am. It was a really cool house, but we just didn’t have time to utilize it to its potential. There was a projector screen connected to an iPad with kids YouTube queued up. The kids loved it.