The Best Places to Drink and Stay in Kumamoto

A former storehouse on a pre-war street in Kumamoto, stripped back to almost nothing, where the dramatically lit counter and the bartender behind it are the entire point. Yakoboku is a serious cocktail bar, trained up through Tokyo, Singapore, and Lamp Bar in Nara, and it shows in the quiet confidence of the room. Asia's 50 Best Bars has it at number 25, which lands about right for a place this deliberately unhurried.

A terrace café and bar with a straight shot at Kumamoto Castle is the calling card for this design-forward city hotel by Hoshino Resorts. Rooms are stripped back and colorful, modern without being cold, a kind of riff on Japanese hospitality rather than a recreation of it. The hotel runs on neighborhood enthusiasm, pointing guests toward local life with a conviction most concierge desks gave up long ago.

Grilling your own Aka beef burger on a personal stone grill is not what you expect from a sleek design hotel, but REF Kumamoto leans into that contradiction happily. Muted off-white and wood tones keep guest rooms spare and calm, and the public onsen baths overlook a carefully tended garden. Kumamoto Castle is a short walk away, which gives the whole stay a certain unhurried logic.