Kusatsu: once round the Yubatake, eating as you go
A morning around Kusatsu's steaming Yubatake, eating as you go: cookies and cider, an onsen egg cooked in the spring itself, a brown-sugar manju, a pudding named after the stirring of the hot water, and soba for lunch opposite the bus terminal.
Every price is Jalan's, as of 31 August 2026, and each is small. Kusatsu is about 25 minutes by bus from Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi station. The manju shop closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the karinto shop on Wednesdays.
- Where
- Kusatsu
- How long
- 1 day
- Stops
- 6
- Distance
- 3 km · 2.9 km on foot
- On the clock
- about 4.2 h
- Pace
- slow
- Season
- all
- Mood
- onsen · sweets · slow
Times are the editor’s plan, not a timetable. ≈ marks our own rough estimate; check the train times before you go.
Per person, one adult. Each place’s figure is what its source printed, and the stop names the source and the date; the fares are the operators’ own published figures. Meals and rides with no printed figure are not in the total, and a figure printed more than a year ago says so. Converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of 2026-09-24, not a bank rate.
- 甘草津温泉 湯の香本舗
Handmade Kusatsu cookies of Gunma flour and fresh butter, in seven flavours. A bottle of Yukemuri cider is ¥250.
吾妻郡 · Jalan Net News · 20 min¥250per personas printed by Jalan August 31Hours8:15–21:00 (Saturdays and busy seasons to 21:30); open every day · Jalan, as of 31 Aug 2026
The place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈5 min · 0.3 km
- 焼草津ガラス蔵
Glass made in the green of the Yubatake spring, sold only here, and the original onsen egg: twelve minutes at 80°C, then more than two hours in the 50°C spring, ¥200.
吾妻郡 · Jalan Net News · 30 min¥200per personas printed by Jalan August 31Hours9:00–18:00, changing with the season; open every day · Jalan, as of 31 Aug 2026
The place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈3 min · 0.2 km
- 甘松むら饅頭
Smooth house-made bean paste of Hokkaido azuki in a thin brown-sugar skin, ¥150 each.
吾妻郡 · Jalan Net News · 15 min¥150per personas printed by Jalan August 31Hours8:00–17:00 (the branch opens at 9:00 in winter); closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays · Jalan, as of 31 Aug 2026
The place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈3 min · 0.1 km
- 甘草津温泉プリン
Yumomi pudding, named after stirring the scalding spring with boards until people can bathe in it; made one at a time, ¥500.
吾妻郡 · Jalan Net News · 20 min¥500per personas printed by Jalan August 31Hours10:00–17:00; closes on irregular days · Jalan, as of 31 Aug 2026
The place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈5 min · 0.3 km
- 麺旬彩茶屋 夢花
A Japanese restaurant opposite the Kusatsu bus terminal, cooking with local produce. Zaru soba or udon ¥800, cream anmitsu ¥890.
吾妻郡 · Jalan Net News · 50 min¥800per personas printed by Jalan August 31Hours10:00–15:00 (last order 14:30) and 17:30–21:30; closes on irregular days · Jalan, as of 31 Aug 2026
The place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈33 min · 2.0 km
- 甘草津温泉 湯あがりかりんと
Half an hour's walk west of the centre: karinto in a yukata-print bag, twenty-six kinds. The Yu-no-hana, dusted with sugar like the spring's mineral flowers, is ¥420.
吾妻郡 · Jalan Net News · 15 min¥420per personas printed by Jalan August 31Hours9:30–17:30; closed Wednesdays (varies with the season) · Jalan, as of 31 Aug 2026
The place →Open in maps ↗
On the wire this week
- 草津温泉でおすすめのお土産13選！美味しい銘菓やかわいいスイーツ、雑貨も【群馬】 Jalan Net News
Sora Nakamura was born in Kanazawa, grew up between a fish market and a grandmother's kitchen, and spent her twenties cooking in Tokyo, Lyon and Melbourne before she put down the knife to write. Back in Tokyo since 2019, she keeps a spreadsheet of every place she has eaten at since 2011 and a bicycle she rides to most of them. She writes routes, not rankings, and believes the best restaurant in any town is the one that has been open long enough to have a regular who died there.