Yufuin no Mori

The Yufuin no Mori, "the forest of Yufuin", is JR Kyushu's resort express from Hakata in Fukuoka to Yufuin, the hot-spring town at the foot of Mt Yufu. It was built in 1989 around one idea: that the holiday in Yufuin should begin the moment you step aboard. The cars are metallic green outside and wood inside, the seats sit high above the rails for the view, and a buffet sells local beer, sweets and souvenirs.

It runs across the middle of Kyushu on the Kyūdai Line, a single-track, unelectrified railway that leaves the Chikugo plain, follows the Kusu River up through narrow valleys and hot-spring villages, and crosses a watershed to reach Yufuin in about two and a quarter hours. One round trip a day continues to Beppu, the hot-spring city on the coast.

Three round trips run every day, and every seat is reserved. They sell out day after day, so book as early as the seats go on sale.

The train leaves Hakata on the Kagoshima Main Line and runs south across the Fukuoka plain to Tosu and Kurume, where it turns east onto the Kyūdai Line. For the next hour it crosses the flat rice country of the Chikugo River, with the long ridge of the Minō mountains on the right, and passes Tanushimaru, whose station is built in the shape of a kappa, the water sprite of local legend.

Up the Kusu valley

Past Yoake the line follows the green reservoir of the Yoake Dam into Hita, the old merchant town that was ruled directly by the shogunate. Beyond it the valley narrows: the train crosses and recrosses the Kusu River around the riverside hot springs of Amagase, and slows down for the Jion Falls on the right. Before Bungo-Mori the flat-topped Kirikabu-san, the "tree-stump mountain", stands to the right, and just past the station is the roundhouse of the old steam depot.

Over the watershed to Yufuin

From Bungo-Mori the line climbs through forest and under the watershed in the 1,860-metre Mizuwake tunnel; behind it the water drains to the Chikugo River, ahead of it to the Ōita River. Then the twin peaks of Mt Yufu, called Bungo Fuji, appear ahead and the train runs down into the basin of Yufuin. A cabin attendant comes through with advice on the town shortly before arrival. The Beppu train carries on down the Ōita River to Ōita and along the shore of Beppu Bay, the only stretch of the journey beside the sea.

The trains

There are two sets. Yufuin no Mori I is the original four-car KiHa 71 of 1989, the first of JR Kyushu's design-and-story trains, and works the Beppu round trip. Yufuin no Mori III, the five-car KiHa 72 of 1999, works the other two. Both are high-deckers, with the passenger floor raised above the running gear, and both have a buffet; the KiHa 72's cars are joined by enclosed walkways like little bridges. The seats at each end look forward over the driver's cab and cost the same as any other. When a set is away for inspection, a plain KiHa 185 runs in its place as the limited express Yufu, on the same times and without the buffet. The line also carries two more of JR Kyushu's sightseeing trains, the Aru Ressha and the Kanpachi/Ichiroku, but both are sold only as tour packages; on some days one stands at Yufuin beside you.

Three round trips run every day: two between Hakata and Yufuin, and one between Hakata and Beppu by way of Yufuin and Ōita. Every seat is reserved; there is no walk-up car.

Hakata to Yufuin and Beppu

Beppu and Yufuin to Hakata

Good to know:

• All trains also stop at Tosu and Amagase, and No. 3 and No. 4 at Ōita.
• Which train is which. Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 6 are normally the five-car KiHa 72; Nos. 3 and 4 are the original KiHa 71.
• Inspection days. On 14–16 and 19–23 October and 30 November 2026, Nos. 3 and 4 run as the limited express Yufu on the same times, without the buffet or cabin attendants. JR Kyushu publishes the days from December onwards in mid-October.

Times as of October 2026, from JR Kyushu's timetable of 14 March 2026. Check your date on JR Kyushu's Yufuin no Mori page (opens in a new tab).

You need the fare plus a reserved-seat limited express ticket, bought together: ¥6,130 from Hakata to Yufuin and ¥4,160 to Hita for an adult, with the seat fee varying a little by date. JR Kyushu's web-only Kyushu Net ticket brings Hakata–Yufuin down to ¥5,600. Seats go on sale at 10:00 one month before travel, online and at JR ticket offices; the four-seat box seats are sold only at the offices.

The seats sell out day after day, and JR Kyushu itself suggests that anyone heading for Yufuin consider the other way round: the Sonic to Ōita by way of Kokura, then up the Kyūdai Line. Fares checked October 2026 on JR Kyushu's Yufuin no Mori page; Japanese yen.

The Yufuin no Mori is a JR Kyushu limited express, and the JR passes cover it, reserved seat included. The JR Kyushu Rail Pass (Northern Kyushu) costs ¥15,000 for three days or ¥17,000 for five, and the All Kyushu pass ¥22,000 for three days; the Japan Rail Pass covers it too, at ¥50,000 for seven days. Book the seat at a JR Kyushu ticket office or machine, free with the pass; the Northern Kyushu pass allows six such bookings. Booking before you arrive, through JR Kyushu's pass website, costs ¥1,500 a section for a sightseeing train.

For a return trip to Yufuin alone, a pass does not quite pay: two single tickets cost ¥12,260 and the three-day pass ¥15,000. It pays once the trip goes further, on to Beppu and back to Hakata on the Sonic, say, or another day out across northern Kyushu; price those legs as single tickets before buying.

Checked October 2026 against JR Kyushu's Rail Pass (opens in a new tab) page and the Japan Rail Pass prices (opens in a new tab).

With only three trains a day, a stop on the way out means coming back on a later train, so plan around the timetable: Hita fits between No. 1 and No. 5, and Bungo-Mori or Amagase between a morning train and No. 6 home. Yufuin itself deserves a night.

Yufuin is a town of ryokan, the Japanese inns where dinner, breakfast and the hot-spring bath come with the room, and a night there is the point of the trip. A hotel by Hakata station makes the 9:17 departure easy, and Beppu, at the end of the Beppu train, has hot springs of its own.

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