Northern Okayama Guide 2026: Hiruzen, Yubara & Katsuyama

The mountainous north of Okayama — the region of Mimasaka — is the prefecture’s cool, green back country, and most foreign visitors never reach it. That is the appeal: a high dairy plateau under the sacred peak of Mt Daisen, riverbed hot springs that cost nothing to bathe in, an Edo-era sake town hung with hand-dyed curtains, and a samurai castle town built on extraordinary stone. This guide is for a family or anyone who prefers nature and onsen to cities, and pairs with our northern Okayama highlands and onsen itinerary.

At a glance: Two days with a night at Okutsu Onsen — the Hiruzen dairy highlands, a free riverbed sand bath at Yubara and an onsen ryokan on day one, then the sake town of Katsuyama and the stone walls of Tsuyama Castle on day two. A car is essential up here. Cool and green in summer; avoid building day one around a Wednesday (closures).

The Hiruzen Highlands

The Hiruzen Highlands are a broad, breezy plateau in the far north of Okayama, grazing country for one of Japan’s largest herds of Jersey cattle, set against the rounded Hiruzen peaks and, beyond them, the sacred volcano of Daisen. On a clear day the open, cool, almost alpine setting is a complete change from the lowlands. The family hub is Hiruzen Jersey Land, a dairy farm and restaurant complex where the rich, golden Jersey milk becomes soft-serve ice cream, drinks, sweets and barbecue, with cows in the pastures, a play area and gentle grassland trails. The soft-serve here is locally famous, and it makes a relaxed first stop and an early lunch.

A few minutes away, GREENable Hiruzen is a sustainability and culture complex whose centrepiece is a sweeping curved pavilion built from cross-laminated timber, designed by the architect Kengo Kuma and reassembled here after originally appearing at an exhibition in Tokyo. Around it are a museum with rotating exhibitions on nature and design, a shop of eco-minded goods, a cafe and a base for cycling the highlands on rental bikes. The pale curving wood against the green plateau is the draw. Note that GREENable closes on Wednesdays — one reason to keep day one off a Wednesday.

Yubara Onsen and the free riverbed sand bath

Drop down from the highlands to Yubara Onsen, where the trip’s most distinctive bath waits. Below the great dam at Yubara, hot spring water bubbles up through the gravel bed of the Asahi River, and generations ago locals walled off three pools right in the riverbed to make the Sunayu, one of Japan’s most celebrated free open-air baths — so highly rated it is traditionally ranked the “west champion” of riverside rotenburo. The pools are open to the sky, free of charge, open around the clock, and overlooked by the dam wall; you soak in the steaming water with the river running past and the forested gorge above, a wonderfully elemental experience that costs nothing.

Two practical notes matter here. The Sunayu is a mixed-gender bath in the old country style, so come prepared and observe the posted etiquette; and it closes on Wednesday mornings (roughly until midday) for cleaning, which — combined with GREENable’s Wednesday closure — is the clearest reason to avoid a Wednesday for this day.

A night at Okutsu Onsen

East of Yubara, the small riverside resort of Okutsu Onsen has soothed travellers for centuries with its smooth, alkaline “beauty waters”. Its most atmospheric inn is the Meisen Kagiyu Okutsuso, founded in 1927 and a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Its prized bath, the Kagiyu, is fed by a source that wells up directly through the rocks of the riverbed beneath the building, so the water is poured fresh and untreated straight from the ground, with the Yoshii River running just outside the bath windows. A handful of traditional rooms, kaiseki dinners of mountain vegetables, river fish and local beef, and the sound of the water make it a refined, old-Japan retreat — the relaxed close to a day of highlands and riverbed bathing. Rates vary by season and usually include dinner and breakfast (approx., 2026); reserve well ahead.

Day two: Katsuyama’s sake town and Tsuyama’s castle

The second day is gentler and more cultural. Katsuyama was the castle town of a small domain and a river port on the Asahi, and its old core is preserved as Okayama’s first townscape preservation district: a street of Edo and Meiji merchant houses, lattice fronts and storehouses below a wooded castle hill. Its signature touch is the noren — every shop, studio and home hangs a length of indigo-dyed cloth at its entrance, each individually designed and hand-dyed by a local textile artist, so the whole street is curtained in unique fabric panels that flutter in the breeze. The lanes hold craft studios, cafes and galleries, and the unhurried, lived-in feel makes it one of the most charming small towns in the prefecture.

On the old main street, the Tsuji Honten brewery has made sake under the Gozenshu label since 1804 — the name means the sake once presented to the lord of the domain. The brewery is known across Japan for its young female master brewer, one of relatively few women to lead a traditional sake house, and for reviving an old brewing method using only locally grown Omachi rice. A renovated brewery shop and a stylish cafe-bar let you taste a flight of the house sake, buy direct and see the brewing courtyard; tasting is walk-in (with a fee), while formal tours need advance booking. Mind drink-driving rules — have the non-driver taste, or use the cafe.

Continue east to Tsuyama, the main town of the northern region, once crowned by one of the three great flatland-hill castles of Japan. The keep and turrets were dismantled in the Meiji period, but the castle’s astonishing stone walls survive almost complete — tier upon tier of beautifully fitted masonry climbing the hill in great curving ramparts, among the most impressive stonework of any castle in the country. The grounds, now Kakuzan Park, are planted with around a thousand cherry trees and rank among western Japan’s finest blossom spots in early April; a single reconstructed turret can be entered, and climbing the layered walls to the top bailey gives an airy view over the town. Below the castle on the east side, the Joto district is a long, well-preserved street of the old castle town, an Important Preservation District with a sake brewer, an old pharmacy and a small museum recalling the town’s surprising tradition of Dutch-studies scholars — a calm, authentic final stop.

Practicalities for 2026

A car is essential in northern Okayama; the highlands, hot springs and castle towns are spread across the mountains with sparse, slow public transport. From Okayama or the Chugoku Expressway it is roughly two hours up to Hiruzen, and the day’s route then works its way east via Yubara and Okutsu to Katsuyama and Tsuyama. The region is cool and green in summer — a genuine escape from lowland heat — and spectacular in the cherry season at Tsuyama in early April and in autumn colour. The single scheduling trap is Wednesday: both GREENable Hiruzen and the Yubara Sunayu’s morning are affected, so plan day one for another day. For a more strenuous inland companion trip, see our Bitchu Matsuyama Castle and Fukiya guide.

FAQ

Is the Yubara Sunayu sand bath really free? Yes. The Sunayu is a free, open-air hot-spring bath set right in the bed of the Asahi River below the Yubara dam, open around the clock. It is a mixed-gender bath in the traditional style, so observe the posted etiquette, and note it closes on Wednesday mornings for cleaning.

Do I need a car for northern Okayama? Effectively yes. The Hiruzen Highlands, Yubara and Okutsu onsen, Katsuyama and Tsuyama are spread across the mountains with limited bus service, so a car makes the two-day loop practical. Without one, the region is very hard to cover.

What is Katsuyama known for? Katsuyama is a preserved Edo-era sake and river-port town where every shop and home hangs an individually hand-dyed indigo noren curtain at its entrance. Its Gozenshu (Tsuji Honten) brewery, run by a noted female master brewer, offers tastings on the old main street.

Why visit Tsuyama Castle if the keep is gone? Tsuyama’s keep was dismantled in the Meiji era, but its great tiered stone walls survive almost complete and are among the finest castle stonework in Japan. The grounds are also one of western Japan’s top cherry-blossom spots, with around a thousand trees blooming in early April.

When is the best time to visit northern Okayama? Summer is ideal for the cool Hiruzen Highlands and riverbed bathing, while early April brings spectacular cherry blossom to Tsuyama Castle and autumn brings colour to the hills. Avoid planning the Hiruzen-and-Yubara day on a Wednesday, when key sights close.

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