Kinosaki Must-Visits 3 Days Pass
Last updated: September 15, 2026
Kinosaki Onsen is a 1,300-year-old hot spring town of willow-lined canals, arched stone bridges and lantern-lit lanes walked in yukata and wooden geta. The pass opens three days of its sightseeing staples: the ropeway up Mount Daishi, where the view over the rooftops to the Sea of Japan carries a Michelin Green Guide star; Onsenji, the town's 8th-century guardian temple, with the Onsenji Temple Museum beside its main hall; and a session of mugiwara zaiku, the vivid dyed-straw marquetry made nowhere in Japan but here, with the finished piece to carry home.
Itinerary
- Stop at: Kinosaki Onsen
- Stop at: Kamiya Mingei Shop
- Stop at: Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway
- Stop at: Onsenji Temple
- Stop at: Onsenji Temple Museum
Frequently Asked Questions
Four of the town's sightseeing staples: a round trip on the Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway, Onsenji Temple, the Onsenji Temple Museum next door, and a straw-craft session at the Kamiya Mingei Shop in the centre of town. The seven public bathhouses Kinosaki is known for are a separate thing — this pass is about what to do between soaks.
Limited express trains run direct from Kyoto and Osaka to Kinosaki Onsen Station on the JR San'in Line in around two and a half hours. The town itself is small enough to walk; the ropeway's base station and Onsenji's Sanmon gate are about 15 minutes on foot west of the station, along the canal.
Straw marquetry, made in Kinosaki and nowhere else in Japan for some 300 years — a craftsman from Tottori brought it with him and sold decorated flutes to pay for his lodgings. Barley straw is split, dyed in strong colours and laid into geometric patterns. The session runs about 30 minutes at the Kamiya Mingei Shop, with one of the last remaining straw craftsmen, and you take the finished piece home.
Mount Daishi, 231 metres up, reached in about seven minutes. The ropeway stops halfway at Onsenji — for a thousand years the custom has been to pay respects there before bathing in the town below, and the canes left behind by people the waters healed still hang inside. At the summit there is a lookout over the rooftops to the Sea of Japan, a terrace cafe, and Onsenji's Oku-no-in hall in the trees behind.