Ureshino Onsen: A Quiet Day Trip to a Hot-Spring Town in Saga

This guide lays out a day trip to Ureshino Onsen in Saga. It covers the journey to Ureshino Onsen from Hakata, Nagasaki and Takeo-Onsen, admission and bathing times at the Siebold no Yu public bath, pottery painting and craft workshops, gelato from a tea shop, the dates of the town's festivals, and a shorter half-day version of the plan.

Getting to Ureshino Onsen Station and the Public Bath

Ureshino Onsen Station is a stop on the Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen, and the trip there from Hakata Station takes sixty minutes. Nagasaki and Takeo-Onsen are the other starting points in the table below. Once you arrive, it is about a seven-minute walk from Ureshino Bus Center to Siebold no Yu, the town's public bath.

From	Route	Time
Hakata Station	to Ureshino Onsen Station	60 minutes
Nagasaki Station	to Ureshino Onsen Station	about 25 minutes of ride time
Takeo-Onsen Station	to Ureshino Onsen Station	5 minutes
JR Takeo-Onsen	JR bus to Ureshino Onsen	30 minutes

From Nagasaki Station, the ride time is about twenty-five minutes. From Takeo-Onsen Station, the trip takes five minutes. There is also a JR bus from JR Takeo-Onsen to Ureshino Onsen, which takes thirty minutes. Arriving in the morning leaves room for the bath, the pottery museums and the tea shop before the return.

Siebold no Yu: Admission, Hours and the Private Bath

Siebold no Yu is the public bath this plan is built around. Admission is four hundred and fifty yen for adults. For children, admission is two hundred and twenty yen. The public bath hours are from six in the morning to ten at night, and the entry restriction time is half past nine in the evening.

Item	Details
Adult admission	450 yen
Child admission	220 yen
Hours	6:00 to 22:00, entry restriction time 21:30
Private bath	2,500 yen for 50 minutes, up to 5 adults

If you would rather go with a guide, browse tours around Ureshino Onsen.

Groups have another option. The private bath costs two thousand five hundred yen for fifty minutes and takes up to five adults. Taken as a timed slot, it gives a family or a small party a tub of its own, and it fixes a part of the day in advance, which makes the rest easier to plan around.

Pottery Painting at Shidayaki and Hizen Yoshida

Pottery painting is the hands-on part of this day, offered at the Shidayaki no Sato Museum and the Hizen Yoshida Pottery Museum. The Shidayaki no Sato Museum is open from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon. Its porcelain painting experience, for a mug, plate or incense burner, costs eight hundred to one thousand two hundred yen.

Place or item	Price or time
Shidayaki no Sato Museum, opening hours	9:00 to 17:00
Shidayaki porcelain painting (mug, plate, incense burner, etc.)	800 yen to 1,200 yen
Shidayaki lampshade porcelain painting	2,800 yen
Hizen Yoshida Pottery Museum, opening hours	8:30 to 16:30
Hizen Yoshida painting, 5-sun plate (tax included)	864 yen
Hizen Yoshida painting, yunomi (teacup) (tax included)	864 yen
Hizen Yoshida painting, mug cup (tax included)	1,080 yen

The Hizen Yoshida Pottery Museum is open from half past eight in the morning to half past four in the afternoon. Painting a five-sun plate there costs eight hundred and sixty-four yen, tax included. A yunomi teacup costs the same. A mug cup is one thousand and eighty yen.

The lampshade painting at Shidayaki costs two thousand eight hundred yen. Between the museums, the choice comes down to the item you want to paint: a plate, a teacup or a mug at Hizen Yoshida, or a mug, plate, incense burner or lampshade at Shidayaki.

Gelato, Hot-Spring Tofu and Craft Workshops

For a light snack, the Nakashima Miekaen tea shop sells gelato. A cup is four hundred and fifty yen. A twin is five hundred and twenty yen. The tea shop is listed as open from ten in the morning until five. Plan on that as a snack stop rather than a meal.

Hot-spring tofu is the other local item here, sold as a packaged product. Taishoya's original Torokeru Yudofu, a pack of two blocks, is listed at two thousand yen including tax. Because the listing is for a packaged product, it is the sort of thing to pick up towards the end of the day.

Item	Price or time
Nakashima Miekaen gelato, cup	450 yen
Nakashima Miekaen gelato, twin	520 yen
Nakashima Miekaen tea shop, listed hours	10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Taishoya Torokeru Yudofu, 2-block pack	2,000 yen including tax
Pen-making experience	from 4,800 yen (tax included, varies by wood type)
Bracelet-making experience	from 2,800 yen
Experience length	about 2 hours or more from gathering to dispersal

A craft workshop in town offers a pen-making experience from four thousand eight hundred yen including tax, with the price varying by wood type. A bracelet-making experience starts from two thousand eight hundred yen. The experience takes about two hours or more from gathering to dispersal, so give it a firm slot in the plan.

Planning a Half Day and Festival Dates

For a shorter half day, pair the bath with the tea shop gelato and either pottery museum. Siebold no Yu is open from six in the morning, so the bath comes first. The tea shop's listed hours are ten to five. Shidayaki no Sato is open nine to five. Hizen Yoshida runs half past eight to half past four.

The town's festival dates are fixed. The Ureshino Onsen Summer Festival is held every year on the eleventh of August, postponed to the next day if it rains. The Ureshino Onsen Autumn Festival falls every year on the third of November, a national holiday. The Ureshino Saturday Night Market runs from seven to nine in the evening.

Event	Date or time
Ureshino Onsen Summer Festival	every year on August 11 (postponed to the next day if it rains)
Ureshino Onsen Autumn Festival	every year on November 3 (a national holiday)
Ureshino Saturday Night Market	19:00 to 21:00

If one day feels short, browse places to stay in Ureshino.