YAMAGATA: Ginzan Onsen – The Nostalgic Onsen Town
Ginzan Onsen
Ginzan Onsen is a very small onsen town nestled deep in the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture. It is a very scenic little town and famous for its snow-cap views during winter time; the bathhouses and ryokans are blanketed with thick layer of snow, giving a huge contrast of white colours to the wooden building.
For full itinerary, check out JAPAN TRIP 2024: 11D10N in Yamagata, Sendai, Aizu Wakamatsu & Tokyo
I would say travelling to Ginzan Onsen is pretty hard one because of its rare and limited public transport that takes you into the town. To get here, one will have to take train from JR Yamagata Station to JR Oishida Station (about 50 minutes on local train / 30 minutes on Shinkansen). Then, take the bus from Oishida Station to Ginzan Onsen. The journey is about 35 – 40 minutes. One way bus ride is priced at ¥1,000 per pax (as of March 2024)
The bus only runs 4 to 5 times a day; at 9.50am, 12.35pm, 2.10pm, 3.55pm and 5.45pm (sometimes). It is very limited and so you will really have to plan your journey very well. We researched and planned well to arrive at JR Oshida Station at about 9.30-ish in the morning so that we could catch the 9.50am bus into Ginzan Onsen, and travel out at around 2 to 3pm.
Sounds like a great plan we had but our plan didn’t run bright. The 8.50-ish am shinkansen from JR Yamagata Station was cancelled! And we didn’t manage to catch the local train that left around that time too. It left us stranded a while at JR Yamagata Station until the next local train.
Soon after we arrived at the JR Oshida Station, we exited the train station and walked towards the roundabout at the front of the station, there was this warehouse-liked bus waiting room on the left. We entered, put our belongings to “queue” so that we were on the queue for the next bus at 12.35pm
Alternatively, if there are 4 of you on the group, you may hail a taxi from the station into Ginzan Onsen. It gonna cost about ¥5,000 per way and to work out the math, it quite worth the journey as you do not have to wait too long for the bus.
If you are planning to visit Ginzan Onsen, do note that there is a new rule (as of winter 2024) whereby they limit the amount of visitors to enter Ginzan onsen by each hour. So better do more research before going there.
Had fun taking photos around while waiting for our bus at 12.35pm
Cute snowman at the station
Warmed up myself with a glass of cherry infused sake. Do you know Yamagata is famous for cherry? And Yamagata cherry is very expensive!
Bucket list ticked! It was like a dream come true get to visit to Ginzan Onsen at its most beautiful season!!! I got really excited as I strolled into the onsen town. Very picturesque covered with thick snow. So magical!
This onsen town is really small, really very small where you can actually finish exploring it within a short time (without the stops for photos or snacks or food). There ryokan and inns line on the both side of the river connected by the wooden bridges. A few soba house or restaurants and café; very few or I shall say less than 5 of them. A few souvenir shops and snack shops.
However, try to avoid coming here on Wednesdays as there are many shops on rest day. It was a bad news to us, it was a Wednesday during our visit, and the soba houses around no longer take up diners as most of them are closing at 2pm or 2.30pm. So no lunch for us until moved back to the city LOL.
It is always a good idea to have a night stay in one of the ryokans here, chill and mesmerize the evening scenic view of Ginzan Onsen town. But booking is really hard. Most ryokans are booked out very early once they are open for booking. And the price can very expensive too.
Gas lit street lamps and wooden bridges reminded me of the scenes in the famous animated fantasy film Spirited Away. It gonna be super romantic during the evening time where the whole area is illuminated by the streets lamp.
There are public foot bath (at free of charge) along the way where you can sit down, take a foot bath and mesmerize the scenery over here.
One of the sourvenirs shops.
Walk further in; you will come to the Shirogane Park and Shirogane Waterfall. A further hike into the mountains behind the waterfall, you will come to the silver mine where you can visit. This route is not available during winter and early spring due to snow.
The branch shrine of Yama No Kami Shrine, is located at the main street here.
A resting area with photo projection of this nostalgic town.
I also sent off some greetings from Ginzan Onsen here!
One good news to us, we managed to grab some sweet buns from the Meiyuan Souvenir Shop that is famous for their homemade sweets.
