Remote work
Yugawara is a small onsen town at the western end of Sagami Bay, about 75 minutes from Tokyo on the Odoriko (特急踊り子). You can work in the morning, take a bath when the day is done, and be in Tokyo the next morning when a meeting needs you. This is how a digital nomad sets that up: the visa, a place to sleep, a desk, and what a month costs.
The house figure is the nightly rate times 30, not a separate monthly package. SIM prices are the ones Ubigi, Sakura Mobile and Mobal publish.
It's a town people live in, not a resort. The station has supermarkets, a library and places to eat around it, the day baths are open into the evening, and the hills and the sea are both a short bus ride away. Writers and painters have come here to stay and work for a hundred years.
It's also cheaper and quieter than Hakone or Atami, and better connected than it looks. The Tōkaidō Line runs straight to Tokyo, and Atami's shinkansen stop is one station away.
Kanagawa Prefecture's 2020 workation scheme, Resort Work in Hakone, on the prefecture's own channel. かなチャンTV（神奈川県公式）, 10 September 2020, 3 minutes 21 seconds.
Japan's Digital Nomad visa, a designated-activities status (特定活動) since 31 March 2024, covers up to six months in Yugawara with no extension and no residence card. You work for a foreign employer or for clients outside Japan. A monthly lease and the town's moving grant sit on the other side of that missing card.
The easiest desk in town is free. Genkan Terrace, the front building of Yugawara Soyu in Man'yō Park, has about 20 seats, free wifi and no booking. By the station, Ekimae no Ibasho is a free community space with wifi and power. For a full day with a bath built in, the lounge at Ofurocafé Hitoma has desks, outlets, wifi and free drinks.
For a week or a month, rent a room or a whole house rather than a ryokan. Makuyama House, a whole house by the river in the hills, takes stays of a month or more from ¥3,000 a person a night and has desks upstairs. The Yugawara Share House, above the station, has private rooms by the night.
The rhythm that works: an early bath at Miyakami no Yu, which opens at 7:00, a morning at a desk, lunch by the station, and an afternoon soak at Kogome no Yu, where the price drops to ¥600 after 19:00. On a slow week, book the no-meal plan at Soyu Terrace and spend three hours between the baths and the library.
The Tōkaidō Line runs direct from Yugawara to Tokyo in about 1 hour 40 minutes for ¥1,790. The Odoriko limited express takes about 75 minutes for ¥2,810 with a reserved seat. Fastest is the shinkansen from Atami, one stop away: about an hour door to door for ¥3,750. The last train home from Tokyo leaves at 22:52.
A share house on the hill above Yugawara Station, run by Matt's friend Masato: private Japanese-style rooms by the night, a big shared kitchen, and a roof terrace over the town and Sagami Bay.
The detached annex of an onsen inn two minutes from Yugawara Station, rented whole: three bedrooms, room for up to 12, and a half-open-air bath fed from the hot spring.
An old house by the Niizawa River in the hills behind Yugawara, rented whole: desks upstairs, wifi, a kitchen, a deck over the river and stays of a month or more, from ¥3,000 a person.
Yes, if you want a quiet onsen town near Tokyo. There's free coworking with wifi, rooms and houses you can book by the night, day baths open into the evening, and direct trains to Tokyo. The Digital Nomad visa covers up to six months.
Yes, for up to six months, with no extension. You need at least ¥10 million a year and medical insurance of at least ¥10 million, and you can't take Japanese clients. No residence card is issued.
Yes. Genkan Terrace at Yugawara Soyu, in Man'yō Park, is free with about 20 seats and wifi, 10:00–17:30. Ekimae no Ibasho by the station is free too, with wifi and power.
About 75 minutes on the Odoriko, 1 hour 40 minutes on the Tōkaidō Line, or about an hour with the shinkansen from Atami.
Yes. Makuyama House takes stays of a month or more, and there are furnished monthly flats near the station.
