Hita Onsen

Hita is a small riverside city in western Oita Prefecture, sometimes called the “Little Kyoto of Kyushu” for its well-preserved Edo-period merchant quarter. The Mameda district, with its whitewashed storehouses and wooden-lattice shopfronts, feels like stepping into a Japanese woodblock print.

In summer, Hita comes alive with the tradition of ukai — cormorant fishing on the Mikuma River performed by torchlight from flat-bottomed boats. The surrounding cedar-clad mountains keep the town cool and misty, and the local Sapporo beer brewery takes advantage of Hita's famously pure spring water. It's the kind of unhurried, off-radar destination where travellers can connect with everyday Japan.