Japan’s Most Underrated Town Has a Twist You Wouldn’t Expect (Close to Osaka via Public Transport)

I can’t believe this is my first time showing you this part of Japan because I’ve been here probably about 8 times in just the past 3 years alone. 100% my favourite area accessible from Osaka – even with just public transport!

Speaking of public transport, I lied! You CAN get to Dorokyo Gorge with a bus! It leaves from Totsukawa Village Office to Dorokyo Bus Stop (called Dorohaccho) with a bunch of other stops along the way. There are however, only 2 buses a day (12:08 & 16:03) going to Dorohaccho and 3 buses a day leaving from there (07:01, 13:14 & 14:25) so plan your route carefully. The bus takes 1 hour & 6 mins and costs 1,090yen.

Bus schedule to Dorokyo Gorge: https://www.navitime.co.jp/diagram/bus/00031880/00099120/0/
Bus schedule from Dorokyo Gorge:
https://www.navitime.co.jp/diagram/bus/00651655/00099120/0/

Bus to Hongu Taisha Mae (use the Kumano Hongu Line):
https://www.ryujinbus.com/busstop/7/

Bus to Kawayu & Yunomine Onsen via Hongu Taisha:
https://www.navitime.co.jp/diagram/bus/00032286/00091836/1/

*only online in Japanese. Tip: open it in Google Chrome to translate it to your desired language*

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It’s so pretty! Love this spot! Love it, love it, love it! Guys, it’s fine. Stop panicking. The only campsite I’ve seen in  Japan that’s completely free. It is about 10:00 a.m., and I’m really excited  today because I am heading to one of my favorite  

Areas that’s kind of close-ish to Osaka,  close-ish. It’s a 3-hour drive away. That’s   close to me! It’s one of my favorite areas ’cause  there are so many different things to do that’s   not just nature. It’s not just history and shrines  and temples; it’s like a mix of everything,  

And I love it, and it’s great for all seasons.  Um, yeah, I’m really excited, so I’m here with   Chris and I’m here with my other friend Riley  as well. We’re going to the first place which   is called Dorokyo Gorge. We’re about halfway at  the moment; we’ve just filled up our big water  

Tank with fresh spring water from our favorite  Spring Water spot, and yeah, very excited. Ah,   this spot is so beautiful. I actually can’t  believe I haven’t made a video here before. Yeah, if you can’t tell, we’ve  been in the car for a while.

So the first time I ever came here, it was with  some friends. It was kind of an unexpected trip;   I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful. I didn’t  even bring my camera, but it was sunny but then  

Also rained lightly, and it was sparkly and  beautiful and sunny and rainy at the same. It was   like magical; it’s actually one of those moments  where I’m like, “Is this real?” Everything’s on   such a grand scale; these cliffs are massive,  and the water is so clear and beautiful. And  

Then there were two ducks here last time as  well, and it looked like they were like mated   for life or at least friends or something. Are you  jumping in, Chris? Oh my Gosh, how is it? Woo. Do  

You have any words apart from “woo”? Woo. Yeah,  it’s also like October 23rd today, so it’s very,   very much not in the summer season. But I just  can’t resist a good swim. No, no, no, no, no;  

You got it on the lens, Chris. This spot is  amazing. Riley didn’t bring swimmers today, so he   was just going to wear his underwear. I don’t know  if I can show this on YouTube; you’re probably not  

Going to be able to use this. Sensor it. I’ll get  demonetized. All right, let’s go. Oh my goodness,   is it cold? Naur. Guys, it’s fine; stop panicking.  Riley you have to put your foot up here! I need   balance! Okay, keeping calm, keeping cool, calm  and collected. It’s kind of worse when you’re just  

Dipping your nuts in a little bit; you know, it’s  almost like the worst thing you could be doing.   Like the only thing that’s in the water is my butt  and my nuts. Don’t make me laugh I can’t balance! All right, guys, come on. We’re professionals.  We’re all stunt people. We’re all stunt people,  

We should have phenomenal balance.  I’m so pissed that I’m the only one   that fell off. I was the only one in control! So you know, I think this might be actually the  first and only campsite I’ve seen in Japan that  

Is a designated campsite but it’s completely  free. And I can’t believe this place exists;   it’s only like a 30- minute drive from The Gorge,  and they’ve got a little kitchen washing up kind   of area here. There is somewhere around here where  you can buy firewood as well so searching for that  

At the moment, but this campsite is awesome. So  often campsites in Japan you have to pay at least   2,000 Yen for a site, and then sometimes there’s  like a fee on top of that per person staying   there. It’s not really expensive, it’s still  cheaper than like other accommodation but yeah,  

It’s not as cheap as it is in some other  countries. Damn, look at this crazy. I can’t   believe it, what a find. I found the Swedish  torch, but it costs 1,000 yen, so I need to go  

Back and put money in the box. This campsite has a  rule that you’re allowed fire because you can rent   the fire, but then you have to protect the ground.  I don’t really know what that means, so we bought  

A fire mat that’s supposed to catch bits of fire;  we’re putting rocks on top of that and then we put   the Swedish torch on top of that. I think it’ll  be fine, but these are all the rocks that I got,  

And that’s the one rock that Chris got. I don’t  know if we need the big one; they like technically   like his is almost the same surface area as  all yours. Oh, woah, woah, woah. Thank you!   This is the strangest fire setup I’ve ever had.  Oh, it’s doing something; it’s doing something.  

Funnelweb Spiders man, they’re nasty. Are they  like the fat ones? They’re fat and they rear   up and they like chase you, like ahhhh. Hell no!  Yeah they chase you, man. they’re like arrrghghh. One of the very few off-roading  experiences you can have in

Japan is driving on the riverbed, and Chris has  been wanting to do it for ages. How does it feel,   Chris? Feels so nice; it feels great. Yeah, Baby!  Oh, he’s got the right idea.  

So not very far from where we were just camping and also not far from The Gorge is Kumano Hongu Taisha. It’s  a popular spot on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage  Trail. It’s actually beautiful. There’s a lot   of things to do here, there’s a lot of cafes and  restaurants. Because it’s a more touristy place,  

There’s more people around, yeah, so it’s  a cool little like Hub. I don’t know this   area just has so much stuff to do in a small  space, it’s awesome. Holy jeeeez! Isn’t it huge?! It’s just massive. I don’t know if it is  the biggest in Japan, I don’t think it is,  

But it’s got to be up there. Yeah, I don’t know  if I would call this place like a “Hidden Gem”   It’s very clearly popular ’cause it’s on the  Kumano Kodo hiking trail but it’s definitely   a beautiful place to stop if you’re in the  area, in between hidden gems.

Oh my God; I nearly just completely… Wow. That was quite the intro… So just a very, very short 10-minute drive away  from the place that we were just at,   the very like more busy little more touristy  area, is this place called Kawayu Onsen,  

And I swear every time I’ve been here I’ve  not seen more than two people in the water.   It’s one of my favorite spots in the Kansai  area, one of my favorite hidden gems in Japan   as well. It’s wonderful all year round,  and you’ll see why in just a minute.

How’s the temperature? Oh, beautiful. Oh,  there’s a crab in here! What are you doing? It’s good hey? It is good! Yeah, this bath is the  best. So the thing about this place that is so   amazing is that there’s just a regular river bed  running around here, and then underneath the river  

Rocks, Onsen water is coming up out of the ground,  so if you dig, then you’ll find Onsen water,   and you can kind of dig your own little Onsen  pool which is why there’s all these little like  

Sectioned off areas. And if you dig too far, it  can get too hot even in the middle of winter. Is   it too hot or really hot? Uh, I’d say it’s just  below 40. Really? It’s hot! So then you can like  

Divert some of the river water in there to cool it  down a bit if you want to just go straight in the   river to cool down, it’s a great temperature,  but it’s quite chilly. Oh, it’s cold! Oh, it’s freezing!

So you can keep doing this like back and  forth, cold dip, hot dip. It’s so amazing, yeah,   and this spot never has anyone here. Amazing!  Love this spot, love it, love it, love it. This is one of the spots in my Hidden Gem  Travel Guide, so if you want to know how to  

Get here and all the details and what to do,  go check out the travel guide! How’s it feel? No! Normally, the onsen water is up to the top. I  dunno, maybe someone pulled the plug or something.  

There’s a little plug down there cuz natural  onsen water just keeps coming in no matter what. A monkey?! What? Monkey. Monkey. Monkey. Parkour! So at about an 8min drive at the spot we  were just at, we’ve come to another spot  

Called Yunomine Onsen. There’s quite a  few tourists here so it’s not too busy,   but they’re about to catch a bus soon so  it’s gonna be just us in a minute. It’s   just a tiny little onsen town, and there’s a  little stream that runs through the middle.  

And a lot of onsen water pouring out here,  you can see all the minerals pooling on the   side. There’s a little temple here and you can  buy eggs from the store to cook in the water. It’s time! Moment of truth! I might have nailed it; you know what, I think I  did.

That was like the worst way to eat an egg,   But look at that! That’s I think that’s like  the perfect amount. And then they also give   you a little bit of salt as well. I can’t  really say if it like tastes more like an  

Onsen or if it gives it flavor because onsen  kind of just smells eggy so I guess it’s a   pretty eggy… egg? Tough to say. Yeah, but  delicious and fun! Interactive experiences. You sound so lame. You know how to party! Don’t I!

You want to have a wild time? Come to this town, man. So there it is, my absolute favorite place in all of  Kansai, and I hope that it’s obvious to you why   this would be my favorite place in that there’s  just so many amazing little towns and unique  

Nature and beautiful sites all really close  together in the one area. It’s truly amazing.   Like I’ve lived in Osaka for a number of years,  for like eight years now, but I actually only   discovered this area like 2-3 years ago, maybe  during Covid when I couldn’t go anywhere else.  

And yeah, all of these places are just within  a few hours’ drive from Osaka, which is truly   amazing. Yeah, I’ve been many, many, many times.  I’m actually going back to this area again in like  

3 days’ time. Yeah, I know, sorry, I filmed this  video in like October, but it’s just been so busy   I haven’t been able to edit it all in time, and  now it’s finally going out with the help of Chris  

Editing this video. Well done, Chris. I’m going  back to this place again in like a few days’ time,   and it’s obviously January now, end of January,  so I’m going to be able to see it in a completely   different season and going to different areas,  different towns, and I’m really, really looking  

Forward to it because it’s just this place, this  area, it has so much to offer; it’s amazing! I think if this was close to Tokyo, it would  be way more packed than it is, but because it’s  

Close to Osaka, it’s still kind of like, still not  many people, which is good… great for us anyway.   All of the places that I went to in this trip are  accessible by public transport except for Dorokyo   Gorge, unfortunately. I tried, I tried to find  a way. I was searching for like public buses;  

I was like, what if you hitchhike, what if you  get a cab? I mean, like you could get a cab,   sure, but it would be very expensive, and then  like how do you get out? I’m really sorry,   unfortunately, for that one is not accessible by  public transport, but Yunomine Onsen and Kawayu,  

They are accessible by bus. But unfortunately,  the buses, because it’s such a mountainous area,   like there’s no trains that go through the center  of Wakayama, so the buses have to drive down these   little mountainous roads, and it can take quite a  while. So having a car will definitely help you.  

I think I’m going to make a video soon about  things to expect while driving in Japan ’cause   I’m such an advocate for it, and I want more  people to drive in Japan because it can take   you so much further. Kawayu especially is just  one of those places that is always beautiful  

No matter the time of year, especially in winter.  So right now, I can’t remember exactly the dates,   but they do something called Sennin Buro, which  literally translates to a “thousand people bath”.   Like they create this giant onsen, but it’s  still out on the riverbed. So instead of having  

To stand out there in the freezing cold in the  winter, like trying to dig your own little onsen,   you can just go straight into this public onsen,  a thousand-person bath. I don’t know if there’s  

Really a thousand people ever in it at any point  in time; I hope not, sounds terrible. But no, it’s   just a lovely way that you can also enjoy it in  winter, and I’ve never seen it, but friends have,  

And they said that they loved it even more like  that. Yeah, it’s such a cool place, and also   Kawavu is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite  spots. So much so that I’ve put it into my travel   guide, which I mentioned earlier. My travel  guide is called Beyond The Tourist Trail, and  

It is filled with 20 of my top absolute favorite  hidden gems in the center kind of area in between   half of Shikoku and up to Nagano/Niigata kind of  area, along with 120 plus extra hidden gems around   in the similar area. And there’s interactive  things that you can click on, and it opens up  

Different maps and bus schedules. I’ve translated  entire bus schedules so that nothing is left up   to Google Translate; you don’t have to do any of  that because I’ve done it all for you, figured   out all of the ways that you can get there with  public transport, including Kawayu onsen. So if  

You’d like to check out this place, and you really  want to simplify the process, go and check out my   travel guide. The link is in the description down  below. It’s available on my website. And that’s  

All I’ve got to say! If you like this video,  please leave a like, and if you want to see more,   subscribe. Follow me on Instagram, and there’s  Patreon, and there’s… I think that’s it.   Actually, no I do have Tik Tok- don’t follow  me on Tik Tok. It doesn’t matter. I’m such a  

Tik Tok hater. Anyway. Thank you for watching,  and I’ll see you guys next time, bye! Meow Meow.