Beppu produces more hot-spring water than anywhere in Japan: a town of rising steam, "hell" ponds, and sand baths. In 2021 it gained something it never had: a destination counter. Taizo Hirokado came home after a decade at the three-star Kashiwaya in Osaka, soba apprenticeship under the legendary Kunihiro Takahashi, and four years as right hand at Ginza's two-star Shinohara, and opened eight seats of zelkova in the hills above the bay.
What you eat
His obsession is what he calls zero hours from the sea: fish carried from the market still in seawater, alive until the course begins, sliced so thin the plate's pattern shows through — a texture Tokyo physically cannot serve. His signature hamo has its small bones drawn out one by one rather than shattered by the usual bone-cutting, crowned with Miyazaki caviar; handmade soba from his year with the master appears mid-course; autumn brings boar and deer over charcoal. Two Tabelog Award Silvers, three Gault & Millau toques, and a 2025 Destination Restaurants selection — in under five years.
The land around it
The dinner anchors Japan's definitive onsen itinerary: the seven "hells," the 19th-century Takegawara sand bath, steam-cooking workshops in Kannawa where the earth does the braising, and the thatched yunohana huts of Myōban. Yufuin's art-and-lake resort town is thirty minutes over the hill.
Best for
Onsen travelers who want a world-class table between baths — and kappō lovers curious what ¥28,500 buys when the chef's rent isn't Ginza's.
