onsen day trips that don't need an overnight bag

round trip has to work in one day without rushing. kusatsu looks close on a map but it's a 3 hour train ride each way, so it's not here

35-50 min from Tokyo Station on the Kodama, IC card works fine if you skip the reserved seat

Yugawara

Hakone-Yumoto

the classic, Romancecar direct from Shinjuku in under 90 minutes. go off-peak on a weekday if you can

Ito

honestly pushing it, 100 min each way puts round trip a little over my own 3 hour rule, but the coastal onsen are worth bending it for

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