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sanji
Sat May 12, 2012 5:52 pm

Best Onsen in Japan - rated by Tabihikaku and Tripadvisor
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Rating is a popular activity nowadays. And onsen are something worth rating...

Here is the first rating from The first 20 onsen towns are :

1) Kusatsu Onsen (Gunma-ken)
2) Yufuin Onsen (Oita-ken)
3) Arima Onsen (Hyogo-ken)
4) Noboribetsu Onsen (Hokkaido)
5) Gero Onsen (Gifu-ken)
6) Hakone-yumoto Onsen (Kanagawa-ken)
7) Kinosaki Onsen (Hyogo-ken)
8) Kurokawa Onsen (Kumamoto-ken)
9) Dogo Onsen (Ehime-ken)
10) Ikaho Onsen (Gunma-ken)
11) Beppu Onsen (Oita-ken)
12) Atami Onsen (Shizuoka-ken)
13) Gora Onsen (Kanagawa-ken)
14) Nozawa Onsen (Nagano-ken)
15) Wakura Onsen (Ishikawa-ken)
16) Ibusuki Onsen (Kagoshima-ken)
17) Shirahama Onsen (Wakayama-ken)
17) Beppu Onsen-kyo (Oita-ken)
19) Nyuto Onsen (Akita-ken)
20) Jozankei Onsen (Hokkaido)


The second list from TRipadvisor focuses on hikaeri onsen (day-trip soaks), and in my opinion, is much less relevant, as it is rather selecting large industrial facilities rather than hidden hot springs... The first 20 hikaeri onsen are :

1) Healthyland Rotenburo (Ibusuki, Kagoshima)
2) Hottarakashi Onsen (Yamanashi, Yamanashi)
3) Himawari-no-yu  (Shima, Mie)
4) Shika-no-yu (Nasu, Tochigi)
5) Sunaraku (Ibusuki, Kagoshima)
6) Dogo Onsen Honkan (Matsuyama, Ehime)
7) Zippuku-no-yu (Ueda, Nagano)
8) Hoheikyo Onsen (Sapporo Hokkaido)
9) Tenzan Tojikyo (Hakone, Kanagawa)
10) Takegawara Onsen (Beppu Oita)
11) Kin-no-yu (Arima Onsen, Kobe, Hyogo)
12) Terme VILLA Chulayu (Cyatan Okinawa)
13) Anakanon-no-yu (Obuse, Nagano)
14) Tenku-no-yu, Budo-no-oka Onsen (Kousyu, Yamanashi)
15) Yuami-no-shima  (Kuwana, Mie)
16) Spa LaQua (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo)
17) Oedo Onsen Monogatari (Koto-ku, Tokyo)
18) Spa World (Osaka, Osaka)
19) Onsen Cafe (Myoko, Nigata)
20) Hakone Kowakien Yunessan (Hakone, Kanagawa)


The existence of those ratings was found on the excellent [url=http://onsensoaker.blogspot.com/]Onsen Soaker blog.