[Tomamu] Minamina Beach & Kirin no Yu: How Crowded Is It in Winter?

This time I’ll introduce Minamina Beach and Kirin no Yu, located within the Hoshino Resorts Tomamu area in Hokkaido.

Minamina Beach is a fully indoor pool facility where you can enjoy a summer-like pool experience even in winter, and afterward, Kirin no Yu lets you warm up in an open-air bath while taking in Tomamu’s natural scenery.

I used this facility during a winter stay at Hoshino Resorts TOMAMU The Tower, so I’ll share what Minamina Beach and Kirin no Yu are actually like, including how crowded they get.

I’ve also covered my full stay at Hoshino Resorts TOMAMU The Tower in a separate article — take a look if you’re interested.

Basic Information on Minamina Beach

Minamina Beach is one of Japan’s largest indoor wave pools, located within the Hoshino Resorts Tomamu grounds. Even in winter, the indoor temperature stays around 25°C (by feel), so it draws plenty of visitors year-round.

One distinctive feature is the glass-walled building, creating an open, airy space well-suited for couples and families.

Minamina Beach Location

Name	Minamina Beach
Address	2198-1 Naka-Tomamu, Shimukappu, Yufutsu District, Hokkaido 079-2204
Phone	01-6758-1111
Hours	11:00am–8:00pm (last entry 7:00pm) ※Winter season runs December through late March (dates vary by year — check the official site for the current closing date)
Official site	https://www.snowtomamu.jp/winter/minamina/

Basic Information on Kirin no Yu

Kirin no Yu is a bathing facility attached to Minamina Beach, with a washing area, sauna, cold plunge bath, and an open-air bath with a view of Tomamu’s natural surroundings.

Inside, there’s a washing area, cold plunge, and sauna, but there’s no indoor soaking bath.

How to Get to Minamina Beach

Minamina Beach is located within the Hoshino Resorts Tomamu grounds, so from any hotel — The Tower or RISONARE Tomamu — you’ll take the area shuttle bus, which circulates roughly every 15 minutes.

From The Tower, Minamina Beach is 3 stops away. After 5pm, the bus skips the Resort Center stop, making it just 2 stops.

This time I boarded from the bus stop at the main entrance of The Tower 1. Make sure the bus is headed to “⑦ Minamina Beach direction.” It’s a fairly large bus.

Note: A bus headed to “⑧ RISONARE Tomamu direction” also stops at the same bus stop, so be careful not to board the wrong one. Hotel staff were out calling this out repeatedly despite the cold.

After about 5 minutes, you arrive at Minamina Beach’s main entrance. It’s covered the whole way, so even if it’s snowing, you won’t get wet. Kirin no Yu is also located inside Minamina Beach.

Reception at Minamina Beach / Kirin no Yu

Right past the main entrance is a facility map, so it’s worth checking the layout before heading in.

The flow is: check in at reception on the left, then take the escalator down in the center and check in your shoes.

From there, change in the locker room directly below, and you’ll have access to the pool out front and the jacuzzi by the poolside.

If you’re going straight to Kirin no Yu, after checking in your shoes, there’s a counter where you pick up bath towels — just head there.

Kirin no Yu has its own dedicated changing room and lockers, so if you’re still in your swimsuit after the pool, just grab your towel set and head straight to the changing room — no need to change first!

Reception is on the left as you enter the main entrance, but during the peak evening hours on weekends and holidays, staff were posted out front checking tickets and directing guests straight to the central escalator.

If you have the admission ticket given at hotel check-in, entry is free for guests! Just show it at reception.

Keep that ticket safe — even after checking in, you can use it as many times as you like throughout your stay!

Going down the central escalator, you check in your shoes and switch into shared slippers.
There aren’t lockable lockers at this point, so you either get a plastic bag to store your shoes in a locker room locker or a Kirin no Yu locker, or just leave them out — some people do just that.

Directly below is the men’s and women’s changing room for the beach area.

If you’re heading to Kirin no Yu, pick up a bath towel set and a wristband at the counter.

If entry is limited at the time, you’ll be handed a numbered buzzer, by group, to be called when it’s your turn.

Standard lockers that lock with your wristband. They’re packed in tightly, with barely any extra space.

Minamina Beach’s Indoor Pool

The indoor pool measures 30m by 80m, one of the largest in Japan. It really is spacious.

Waves run for 10 minutes every 30 minutes, and for ¥1,600 you get unlimited use of the many available floats — kids are guaranteed to love it! Just be careful, since the water depth varies by area.

In summer, apparently you can even take stand-up paddleboard lessons.

The water temperature is around 30°C, so it’s amazing that you can swim in a swimsuit even in the dead of winter.

Beside the pool is a jacuzzi bath, and it’s often near-empty, so families can enjoy it almost like a private bath.

This is the kids’ pool, about 30cm deep. Parents can relax on a bench nearby while still keeping their kids in view.

If you get tired of the pool, you can relax under a beach parasol. There are plenty of beach chairs!!

Kirin no Yu’s Open-Air Bath

Kirin no Yu is on the right side — the women’s bath is near the front, and the men’s bath is further back.

The route to the bath feels a little unusual, since you walk along the wet poolside to get there.

Watch your step — slippers get quite slippery along this path.

The women’s bath is quite close, so that’s convenient.

Men, on the other hand, have a bit of a walk toward the back.

The poolside area is humid and muggy, so wearing a down jacket there is unbearably hot!

Walking along, taking in the view of the wave pool, I found the men’s bath toward the back.

I went down a brick staircase matching the pool’s design, heading to the changing room.

I wondered if this area used to be part of the pool itself at some point — it doesn’t really feel like a bathhouse.

The changing room has lockers that look more like office storage lockers.

For some reason, the inside of the lockers has an odd, uneven stepped shelf…

Since you’re wearing a down jacket in winter, the lockers run on the smaller side. I’d strongly recommend leaving most of your belongings in your room and bringing just your bath kit.

The changing room has a water cooler, hair dryer, and cotton swabs.

I wasn’t able to photograph inside the bath itself, so it’s a bit hard to describe, but the design is unusual: there’s no indoor soaking bath — instead, washing stations line all four sides, and oddly, a single 21°C cold plunge bath sits alone in the middle.

It has a similar design to the poolside jacuzzi, enough that you could almost mistake it for part of the pool rather than a bathhouse.

Further in is the open-air bath. The open-air bath has a completely different, more refined design than anything I’d seen before — soaking in an infinity bath while snow quietly falls amid Tomamu’s natural scenery is simply amazing!

Even in winter, the water was around 43°C, quite hot. I saw a lot of people sitting on the edge to cool down.

The Sauna at Kirin no Yu

Kirin no Yu also has a sauna.

It’s a dry sauna running between 82°C and 90°C. In the evening, when people come and go heavily, the temperature tends to drop during peak times.

It’s rectangular with 3 tiers, and you sit on a sauna mat on the bench. There’s no TV or background music, and maybe because there’s no posted guidance about staying quiet, or maybe because there are a lot of foreign visitors, plenty of people were chatting.

The cool-down relaxation space had a “Closed” sign up for some reason, so I wasn’t able to use it — cooling down meant either the 21°C cold plunge or the freezing open-air bath.

The open-air area gets very cold in winter, close to -10°C. Your hair freezes solid almost instantly.

Minamina Beach’s Café

To the right of the main entrance is Minamina Cafe.

They sell ice cream like “Hokkaido Soft Cafe” and “Hokkaido Cup Gelato,” along with various alcoholic drinks and juices, plus takeout rice bowls and other light snacks.

Prices run at resort rates — for reference, gelato is ¥550, a parfait is ¥950, and a salmon & salmon roe rice bowl is ¥1,800.

With just one staff member handling the cooking, you may be told to expect a 15-minute wait before your food is ready.

How Crowded Are Minamina Beach and Kirin no Yu?

You’re probably curious how crowded Minamina Beach and Kirin no Yu get during the winter season.

I visited on all three days of a 3-day weekend in January, and the pool at Minamina Beach wasn’t particularly crowded.

Since most visitors are there for skiing or snowboarding, they may just not have the energy, or the inclination, to also hit the pool before or after.

Kirin no Yu, on the other hand, gets crowded between 4pm and 6pm, with wait times of up to about 30 minutes.

Everyone tends to think alike: get back to the hotel from skiing or snowboarding around 4pm, then take a quick bath to freshen up before dinner — the classic routine.

To avoid the crowds, I’d recommend either wrapping up your skiing/snowboarding early and heading to the bath right away, or going a bit later, after 6pm.

Staff mentioned that Kirin no Yu doesn’t get very crowded on weekdays.

My Honest Impressions After Trying It Out

This time, my main reason for visiting Minamina Beach was to use the bath after a day on the slopes!

The pool really does live up to its claim of being one of Japan’s largest — open, clean, and feeling like a private indoor water paradise, mostly used by international tourists and families with kids.

Kirin no Yu has an unusual design, almost like the open-air bath was added on afterward, with no indoor soaking bath — if you’re there purely for a proper hot spring experience, it might feel a little lacking.

The open-air bath, though, was exactly as advertised — soaking in the bitter cold felt amazing, and it warmed my whole body right up!

I didn’t get to see any myself, but apparently if you’re lucky, you might spot wild animals like foxes or deer.

Day-trip use is available too, but since it’s free for hotel guests, I’d definitely recommend stopping by if you’re staying at a Hoshino Resorts property!

Check rates and availability for Hoshino Resorts TOMAMU The Tower:

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About the author

Joe

I love hotels, hot springs, and saunas across the whole country!!
I’ve made it to 40 prefectures so far.
Around 100 hotel stays and 50+ saunas visited, and the count keeps climbing.
My hobbies are travel, golf, snowboarding, saunas, and the gym.

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