Charcoal Yakiniku Near Kurokawa Onsen: Hyakushoya
The short answer
If you want dinner near Kurokawa Onsen and you are not eating at a ryokan, drive to Hyakushoya in Oguni and order the akaushi platter. It is yakiniku — Japanese table barbecue — grilled over real charcoal set into the middle of your table, which is increasingly hard to find anywhere in Japan.
Order the horse sashimi too. And bring cash: it is the one thing that can go wrong here.
We run a lodge in Minamioguni, about twenty minutes’ drive from the restaurant, and this is where we send guests who ask for a proper dinner out.
The entrance. The hanging signs read akaushi, basashi (horse sashimi) and dago-jiru, a local dumpling soup.
Why charcoal matters
Most yakiniku restaurants in Japan now cook on gas burners or electric roasters with extraction hoods. They are clean and convenient. They are also not what yakiniku used to be.
At Hyakushoya the grill is a pit of charcoal built into a heavy wooden table, with a wire mesh laid over the top. When you sit down the coals are already glowing. Fat drips onto them, the smoke rises back through the meat, and everything picks up that faint, sweet char you do not get from gas.
It is slower and a little smokier. That is the point.
The table grill, lit and waiting. You cook everything yourself.
What we ordered
We ordered the akaushi platter. It is the easy choice and the right one: akaushi kalbi, plus horumon (beef offal), seseri (chicken neck), chicken and pork belly. Beef, pork and chicken on one plate, arranged with a sprig of greenery on a slab of dark stoneware.
If you have never had yakiniku, the drill is simple. Put a few pieces on the grill, turn them once, dip them in the sauce, eat. Do not load the whole plate on at once.
About akaushi
Akaushi is Kumamoto’s own wagyu — a brown breed raised on the grasslands of Aso, which is the landscape you drive through to get here.
Visitors tend to know Japanese beef as the heavily marbled black wagyu that melts on the tongue. Akaushi is a different animal. It has much less fat, and what it gives you instead is lean, clean beef flavour. On charcoal that works beautifully: the outside crisps, the inside stays tender, and because it is not rich you can keep eating long after marbled beef would have stopped you.
Akaushi and pork belly on the coals.
Order the horse sashimi
Horse meat is a Kumamoto speciality, eaten raw as basashi — thin slices served cold with soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Visitors are often wary of it. We would gently suggest trying it here, because this is a very good place to do so.
Hyakushoya’s horse sashimi and horse liver sashimi are outstanding. Just along the road is Iwanaga Honten, one of the best-known horse-meat butchers in the area, and we suspect the neighbourhood has something to do with how good the basashi is at this table.
A cold slice of horse sashimi between rounds of hot, smoky beef is one of the better contrasts you can put in your mouth in Kyushu.
The rest of the menu
The standard yakiniku sides are all here, including stone-pot bibimbap and cold noodles (reimen). Either makes a good way to finish: the bibimbap if you are still hungry, the cold noodles if you want something sharp and clean after the grill.
It is the kind of menu that works for a family or a mixed group. Children who are not interested in horse sashimi will happily eat chicken and rice.
Practical details
| Name | Hyakushoya (百姓や) |
| Area | Miyahara, Oguni Town, Aso District, Kumamoto |
| Service | Lunch and dinner |
| Closed | Tuesdays |
| Payment | Cash only |
| Parking | Yes, at the restaurant |
Three things worth knowing before you go.
Bring cash. This is the one line to remember. It is cash only, and the restaurant’s own listings confirm cards and QR payments are not accepted. Yakiniku for a group adds up, so bring enough yen for everyone before you set off.
Check the hours. Listings agree that it opens for lunch and again in the evening, and that it closes on Tuesdays, but the exact times differ slightly from one listing to the next. Look it up on Google Maps on the day, or ask us.
Book at weekends. Local coverage recommends a reservation at the weekend. The booking pages are in Japanese; if you are staying with us, we are happy to help.
Hours and payment details were checked in September 2026. Small restaurants in rural Japan do change them.
Getting there
Hyakushoya is in Oguni, the small town just north of Kurokawa Onsen. There is no practical way to reach it without a car — which is true of most good food in this valley. If you are still deciding whether to rent one, read Do You Need a Car in Aso?.
One thing to settle before you leave: who is driving. Japan’s drink-driving limit is far stricter than most countries’, and it is enforced. Beer and yakiniku are a natural pair, so pick your driver before you pick your platter.
If you are in Oguni the next morning, Pain Matinée, the bakery we mention in our Kurokawa breakfast guide, is in the same part of town.
Where we come into it
We run Echoes of Forest, a four-bedroom lodge about ten minutes’ drive from Kurokawa Onsen. It sleeps up to ten and it is self-catering: there is a full kitchen, and we do not serve meals.
That is why the dinner question comes up so often. The ryokan district goes quiet in the evening because its guests are eating at their inns, so if you are self-catering you either cook or drive. On the nights you do not want to cook, this is the drive we recommend.
- The lodge, the rooms and availability: Echoes of Forest
- Mornings in the valley: Breakfast in Kurokawa Onsen
Where we are
We rent the whole lodge to one group per day — four bedrooms, up to ten guests, about ten minutes by car from Kurokawa Onsen. Everything on this page is the advice we give our own guests before they arrive.