Great Apres Ski or Snowshoe Hotel in Tainai, Niigata

Sports and hot springs are Japanese family members, but the coldness of winter strengthens the familial connection. If an après-winter-sport activity healthier than soaking in a hot mineral bath while breathing snow-cooled air exists, I don't know what that could be. Nothing feels better for the soul and body.

That's why I was soaking in the baths at the Royal Tainai Park Hotel in the quiet town of Tainai, Niigata. The Tainai Ski and Snowboard Area sits on the other side of a small valley from the baths. Bathers in the farthest bath on the hotel's balcony are close enough to watch the action on the slopes, but the distance is too far for the skiers to see the bathers' faces and other body parts.

Only one hotel and ski resort exist at the base of the high mountains. Except for the music emitted by speakers at the ski resort, Tainai is a relaxing and quiet area. Which makes it an excellent location for snowshoeing. The Tainai Ski Resort offers snowshoe tours, but we just wander by ourselves through the nearby healing woods.

 My wife and I had just spent a few hours walking through milky-white forests with our dog and encountered no one. In a park closed to everyone except snowshoers, the three of us strolled up to the top of a two-story snow-clad A-frame cabin and slid down.

As the sun started to set, we wrapped our dog/daughter in a warm blanket in the car and went for a dip. I would have invited her, but she doesn't like water that much, and bringing a dog into a hot spring is not culturally acceptable in Japan.

Non-staying guests can soak for just eight hundred yen, or six hundred yen if you have a ski ticket from the nearby ski resort. Considering the setting and quality of the baths, this is one of the best deals in Niigata.

Besides the indoor bath and sauna, there are two outdoor baths, My favorite is a wooden bath perched on the side of the hotel so that we can look down into a placid river that reflects the colors of the sky. Close to sunset, those colors change slowly from blue or gray to orange and red, finally slipping into blackness until stars spark up the evening.

The water is transparent, but it feels slick because of the mineral content. The Japanese use the onomatopoeic phrase "nuru nuru" to describe this sensation. After bathing, your skin feels smooth, or "sube sube." The more you bathe in Japan, the more onomatopoeic phrases you will learn. That is just one more great reason to enjoy a Japanese onsen. To learn more Japanese for your next intercultural bathing experience, visit the Visual Japanese Onsen/Hot Spring Glossary.

Intercultural Experience in Hokkaido Outdoor Hot Spring

You should get naked in Japan as often as you can, not just because soaking in Japanese hot springs revitalizes your body and soul, but because Japanese onsens are places to observe and participate in cultural observation. If anybody implies that you are lazy for soaking for hours, just tell them you are doing sociological research.

Fukiage Onsen in Tokachidake, Hokkaido, is one of my favorite outdoor hot springs in Japan. There are no changing rooms. Men and women bathe together in the two mixed-sex, konyokuburo, stone baths on the side of a mountainous forest. Meters of snow surround the small baths in winter. The air is crisp and clean. In spring, summer, and fall sunlight filters through layers of colorful leaves. Distant vistas appear between gaps in branches or spaces between trees. Breezes carry earthy forest aromas.

My last visit was a window into various comfort zones. As I walked toward the baths on a recently shoveled path through waist-high snow, I saw one Japanese man in a deep state of hot-spring-induced tranquility. My wife and I greeted him, and he responded with a warm smile. We spoke about the water quality and the atmosphere of the hot spring like two wine lovers would converse about a rare bottle of priceless French wine. Our conversation drifted to comparing and recommending onsen across the span of Japan from Hokkaido to Kyushu.  He was one of the most knowledgeable and experienced hot spring fanatics I have ever met. While speaking, a group of six Australians joined us in the bath.

This was the first time several of them had bathed with strangers. One had prepared in advance by wearing a swimsuit under his pants. Two kept their underwear on. The others were naked, which is how bathing in outdoor springs is commonly done in Japan. Without saying anything, the Japanese man grabbed a snow shovel and started shoveling snow into the bath to cool it down enough for the inexperienced foreigners. It was still too hot for one man who only bathed for a few minutes. Not long afterward the others followed him. My wife, the Japanese man, and I stayed for at least half an hour after their departure. He had already been there for several hours, soaking in the baths, soaking up the forest ambiance, and soaking tranquility inward.

Our conversation about Japanese hot springs continued until we all headed up the hill. Later, in the parking lot, way above the hot spring, he showed us photographs from a photo album he kept in his car. We saw him and his hot-spring-addicted friends building rocky baths around natural springs in various forests. He was rightfully proud of the baths they had constructed in remote woods. The baths were simple ones built from natural materials. The people I saw were members of a Japanese subculture, hot spring addicts, who relish relaxation in natural surroundings and are willing to work hard for their sensual pleasures. I love the springs built by such people. For me, natural hot springs are the best part of Japanese culture. Anime, manga, and cosplay are interesting, but Japan's hot spring culture touches my soul and warms my body.

Bathing in Tea: One of Japan's Most Soothing Hot Springs

Why not combine two healthy, revitalizing, and soothing activities: drinking tea and bathing? The Warakuen Hotel in Ureshino, Japan, has green tea hot springs. A really tearrific experience!

 

Every day several kilograms of green tea from the nearby fields are placed in large stone tea pots through which naturally hot mineral water passes. The hot water flows with the essence of tea into the baths made of artfully arranged stones in a Japanese style garden. The water is smooth. Tea bags are also placed near the bath. Soak them in the water and then rub them across your skin. Your skin will thank you. After bathing, you will smell of fresh green tea.

Ureshino is a small town in Saga Prefecture that is known throughout Kyushu for the quality of its tea, which is grown in mostly small family plots. The town is small enough to explore in a couple of days. While there, walk through tea fields, hike in the nearby mountains, eat meals prepared with tea and other local ingredients, shop for Saga prefecture's pottery, which is acclaimed across Japan, and bathe in the fantastic baths at Warakuen and various free foot baths waiting for you all over town.

Ureshino is a place that brings foreigners into contact with a more relaxed and healthier side of Japan than visitors encounter along the tourist routes in Tokyo and Kyoto. The people of Ureshino are extraordinarily, and rightfully so, proud of the quality of their thermal waters, forest-scented air, and green tea, whether it is in an artfully crafted cup, a luxurious bath, or growing in a pastoral field.

Approximately fifteen years ago, I first visited Ureshino and bathed in several different hot springs scattered throughout the small town. The green tea bath was so memorable that when I decided to start writing travel and culture articles for international magazines, I realized that it would make a great story. As a result, I visited again (it was a fantastic trip) and wrote two related articles for thedailytea.com. One article is about a master potter who uses green tea to paint pottery. Another is about experiencing the beauty, including the tea bath, of Ureshino. The latter was recently published in a printed magazine. If you like tea, take a sip of http://www.thedailytea.com/.

Another Embarrassing Mistake at a Japanese Hot Spring

Most adventurous, bath-loving foreigners in Japan have a few stories of embarrassing, sometimes ignorant, blunders while naked in a Japanese onsen. A visiting friend from the United Kingdom made a faux pas that shocked many hotel guests and hotel staff. He became a naked wandering foreigner.

The comfortable outdoor bath of the Senami View Hotel sits at the base of the rear of the building, which faces the beach. Sitting in the clear, heated mineral water, one has first-row seating at the ever changing dancing of three powerful partners: sun, sky, and sea. A fence on each side of a green lawn provides privacy, and as long as one stays close to the bath, no one in the hotel or on the beach below a gently sloping hill can see you in your natural unadorned state. Both of us were lulled into the nonthinking bliss of a good hot spring.

My friend, in his nakedness, decided to wander over to the trees at the edge of the lawn and sand for a closer view of the beach. He was unaware that he was visible to everyone looking out the windows of the hotel rooms and main lounge. At that time, I was lost in the meditative release that soaking in a great bath brings to me. After a few minutes, I decided, though, to join him, but as I stepped away from the bath and towards the sea, I noticed viewers in the windows above and quickly ran like a duck back to the privacy of the bath. When we later left the hotel, my friend was sure that people in the lounge were smiling at him in a strange manner. If you visit hundreds of baths, as I have, you are bound to have some interesting, sometimes shocking, experiences.  To read about some of my best and worse experiences with Japanese onsens, click this link.

Entrance to the simple indoor and outdoor baths of this pleasant hotel cost just 540 yen. The Senami View Hotel is not as famous as some of the other Japanese hotels and ryokan in Senami Onsen, Murakami, so if you go in the mid-afternoon, you may find yourself with the baths to yourself. Situated along the coast and facing the west, the bath allows views of spectacular sunsets when the sky is clear. The Senami View Hotel is not among the best hotels in Niigata, but it gives value for its money. Murakami has a wide variety of luxurious hot springs, foot baths, and hotels and you should try them all! Perhaps, the strangest hot spring in Niigata Prefecture is down the coast between Murakami and Niigata City.

Most Disturbing Hot Spring Experience (Sexual Harassment)

Sexual harassment is a terrible experience for anyone to undergo, and it happened to me at a hot spring. It had been a wonderful day of hiking and experiencing nature in Northern Japan during autumn when the mountain foliage turns the colors of fire. At the end of the day, my wife and I went into a hotel with separate hot spring baths. She went to the women’s bathing area and I to the men’s.

I was sitting alone on the wooden deck of the outside section. My back was leaning against the outside surface of a gyumonburo, which is a small round tub for just one person, when a young boy of approximately thirteen years old walked in my direction, smiled at me, and climbed into the bath that I was leaning against. His behavior struck me as odd.

Men in hot springs often sit close together, but that is when there is not open free space. Otherwise, it is a violation of personal body space. I decided to move to the other outside bath that was shaped like a rectangle. The boy immediately joined me on the other side, so that we were facing each other. He was staring at me, which children living in the countryside sometimes do to foreigners. I decided to close my eyes and concentrate on the hot water.

Shortly afterwards, I opened my eyes. He was touching himself. I saw the head of his penis protruding above the surface of the water like a periscope or an image of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. He smiled at me. I thought about shouting, but thought again. I am a fiftyish foreigner. He was a young Japanese boy in his home country. If there was a problem, he could say that I was bothering him. Most people would believe him, and my Japanese wasn’t good enough to convince people otherwise.

I fled into the washing area, and the boy, with his flag still raised, followed. Several people were there, but no one said anything even though missing the boy’s excited state was impossible to miss. The boy sat near me again and started soaping himself. I left and settled into another bath. He would, I thought, get the message and stay away. When the boy sat near me once more, I rushed to the dressing room, dressed quickly, and exited.

While waiting for my wife, I reflected on my feelings. Although, I hadn’t been touched, I felt violated. I had felt powerless, too, because I feared that no one would believe me. The boy, most likely, was emotionally disturbed, but believing that didn’t make me feel better. I remembered the story of a female friend who caught a man who had climbed a fence to stare into the women’s bath. Another woman had told me about a man exposing himself to her on a train. The one positive result of this incident was that I now better understand the feelings of women who, in general, are more often sexually harassed than men. - See more at: http://www.expatsblog.com/contests/304/the-seven-best-and-the-worst-experiences-of-a-hot-spring-addict-in-japan#sthash.KTHd2Kdw.dpuf

Most Disturbing Hot Spring Experience (Sexual Harassment)

Sexual harassment is a terrible experience for anyone to undergo, and it happened to me at a hot spring. It had been a wonderful day of hiking and experiencing nature in Northern Japan during autumn when the mountain foliage turns the colors of fire. At the end of the day, my wife and I went into a hotel with separate hot spring baths. She went to the women’s bathing area and I to the men’s.

I was sitting alone on the wooden deck of the outside section. My back was leaning against the outside surface of a gyumonburo, which is a small round tub for just one person, when a young boy of approximately thirteen years old walked in my direction, smiled at me, and climbed into the bath that I was leaning against. His behavior struck me as odd.

Men in hot springs often sit close together, but that is when there is not open free space. Otherwise, it is a violation of personal body space. I decided to move to the other outside bath that was shaped like a rectangle. The boy immediately joined me on the other side, so that we were facing each other. He was staring at me, which children living in the countryside sometimes do to foreigners. I decided to close my eyes and concentrate on the hot water.

Shortly afterwards, I opened my eyes. He was touching himself. I saw the head of his penis protruding above the surface of the water like a periscope or an image of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. He smiled at me. I thought about shouting, but thought again. I am a fiftyish foreigner. He was a young Japanese boy in his home country. If there was a problem, he could say that I was bothering him. Most people would believe him, and my Japanese wasn’t good enough to convince people otherwise.

I fled into the washing area, and the boy, with his flag still raised, followed. Several people were there, but no one said anything even though missing the boy’s excited state was impossible to miss. The boy sat near me again and started soaping himself. I left and settled into another bath. He would, I thought, get the message and stay away. When the boy sat near me once more, I rushed to the dressing room, dressed quickly, and exited.

While waiting for my wife, I reflected on my feelings. Although, I hadn’t been touched, I felt violated. I had felt powerless, too, because I feared that no one would believe me. The boy, most likely, was emotionally disturbed, but believing that didn’t make me feel better. I remembered the story of a female friend who caught a man who had climbed a fence to stare into the women’s bath. Another woman had told me about a man exposing himself to her on a train. The one positive result of this incident was that I now better understand the feelings of women who, in general, are more often sexually harassed than men. - See more at: http://www.expatsblog.com/contests/304/the-seven-best-and-the-worst-experiences-of-a-hot-spring-addict-in-japan#sthash.KTHd2Kdw.dpuf

Most Disturbing Hot Spring Experience (Sexual Harassment)

Sexual harassment is a terrible experience for anyone to undergo, and it happened to me at a hot spring. It had been a wonderful day of hiking and experiencing nature in Northern Japan during autumn when the mountain foliage turns the colors of fire. At the end of the day, my wife and I went into a hotel with separate hot spring baths. She went to the women’s bathing area and I to the men’s.

I was sitting alone on the wooden deck of the outside section. My back was leaning against the outside surface of a gyumonburo, which is a small round tub for just one person, when a young boy of approximately thirteen years old walked in my direction, smiled at me, and climbed into the bath that I was leaning against. His behavior struck me as odd.

Men in hot springs often sit close together, but that is when there is not open free space. Otherwise, it is a violation of personal body space. I decided to move to the other outside bath that was shaped like a rectangle. The boy immediately joined me on the other side, so that we were facing each other. He was staring at me, which children living in the countryside sometimes do to foreigners. I decided to close my eyes and concentrate on the hot water.

Shortly afterwards, I opened my eyes. He was touching himself. I saw the head of his penis protruding above the surface of the water like a periscope or an image of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. He smiled at me. I thought about shouting, but thought again. I am a fiftyish foreigner. He was a young Japanese boy in his home country. If there was a problem, he could say that I was bothering him. Most people would believe him, and my Japanese wasn’t good enough to convince people otherwise.

I fled into the washing area, and the boy, with his flag still raised, followed. Several people were there, but no one said anything even though missing the boy’s excited state was impossible to miss. The boy sat near me again and started soaping himself. I left and settled into another bath. He would, I thought, get the message and stay away. When the boy sat near me once more, I rushed to the dressing room, dressed quickly, and exited.

While waiting for my wife, I reflected on my feelings. Although, I hadn’t been touched, I felt violated. I had felt powerless, too, because I feared that no one would believe me. The boy, most likely, was emotionally disturbed, but believing that didn’t make me feel better. I remembered the story of a female friend who caught a man who had climbed a fence to stare into the women’s bath. Another woman had told me about a man exposing himself to her on a train. The one positive result of this incident was that I now better understand the feelings of women who, in general, are more often sexually harassed than men. - See more at: http://www.expatsblog.com/contests/304/the-seven-best-and-the-worst-experiences-of-a-hot-spring-addict-in-japan#sthash.KTHd2Kdw.dpuf

Best Cascading Japanese Hot Spring Massage of 2014

Hot water cascading onto your shoulders and neck can be akin to a massage from the best masseuse in the world. It is bliss. Among all of the hot springs that I visited in 2014, the best falling mineral water massage I experienced was during a visit to the Meitetsu Inuyama Hotel outdoor bath.

Ah, outdoors, surrounded by rocks and boulders placed with that exquisite Japanese sense of design that brings a sense of nature to an enclosed space, you can only relax. Your stress falls away, first like a drizzly rain, but then after surrendering your body to the pulsating water, all  stress is purged. It runs out of you, like the current of hot water flowing over your body. Negativity has no place in the greenery around you, in your mind, and in your heart. You are refreshed!

Unlike a regular massage in which you are, for the most part, manipulated by someone else, you can control your own massage by aligning the muscles or nerves you want heated and pressed by swaying or twisting your body slightly to allow the fingers of the falling water to find all the right spots. Sit down, stand up, move in, move out, do whatever you want to feel goooooooooood!

And when your massage is finished, open all of your physical senses. You will experience the smooth hot water on your skin, the cooler air flowing into your lungs, the changing light as clouds drift and light rays dance through the bamboo and other leaves, the splashing sounds of water and catlike murmurs of pleasure from bathers near you, and the scent of water, soil, and leaves. This is what will happen to you if you experience, with an open mind, a cascading water massage like this. It is called utaseyu (打たせ湯） in Japanese.


The hot spring facilities at the Meitetsu Inuyama Hotel also include a large indoor bath with a clear view of the outdoor garden and outdoor bath. Next to the indoor bath with its thermal mineral water is an icy cold bath. Many bathers like to cool their bodies immediately before or after cleansing their bodies in the spacious sauna room.

The changing room when I visited was meticulously clean and organized. All sections of the bathing section of the hotel, from the hallways leading from the main part of the hotel to the outdoor bath, were aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately, visitors cannot just drop in for a bath. You can stay at the hotel and bathe for free or eat lunch in their restaurant and then pay for the bathing experience. After I told the management that I had just eaten and that I write about hot springs, I was allowed to bathe without having to purchase another lunch. I did pay for my entrance to the bath, and this positive review is due to the quality of the bathing experience only. I did not receive any money or services from the hotel.

Urakuen, a gorgeous traditional Japanese garden, is on the grounds of the hotel. Anyone interested in Japanese tea culture should visit the wonderful and priceless centuries-old tea house within the garden. It is one of the most famous Japanese tea houses in all of Japan. Jo-an is the name of the historic building. It was designed by a feudal lord/tea master/monk who is connected with the beginnings of the Japanese tea ceremony. Only two tea houses in Japan are national treasures.You can enjoy drinking tea in the same environment that samurais, monks, and merchants did hundreds of years ago.

Inuyama City is an hour or so from Nagoya by bus, train or car. My suggestion is to combine cultural tourism with the hedonistic pleasure of a fantastic bath. Be sure to visit Jo-an, Inuyama Castle, and stroll along the main river in front of the hotel. You can even take boat trips. There is a lot to do, including rock climbing on some cliffs near the river. Check the Internet or a guide book to learn more about this wonderful location. If you fly in or out of Nagoya, check out the fantastic bath inside the Nagoya International Airport.

Four of Japan's Premier Muddy Hot Springs

"You got mud on yo' face" You big disgrace" are two lines from a famous song by the band known as Queen. They got it wrong. There ain't nothin disgraceful bout mud on yo' face: if the mud is some of that good ole clean mud from a natural Japanese hot spring.

Muddy and Healthy

Such springs not only contain mineral elements that are reputed to be good for health but also elements that are said to beautify your skin. Why spend a ton of money at a fancy spa to have someone wrap a facial pack on you, when you can do it yourself, save money, and be surrounded by nature or an authentic Japanese onsen? Just a tiny minority of Japanese hot springs are muddy. To get hot and dirty with the mud, you have to seek out the earthy springs. Read below for a few recommendations.

The muddy hot spring in the photo directly above is Nabeyama Hot Spring ( 鍋山湯), which is in the remote hills of Beppu, Japan. A short hike will be the appetizer before the main dish, a long soak in rock-edged baths in which you can enjoy communing with nature for free. After soaking in the mud, you can clean up in a nearby natural spring of transparent hot mineral water. Be prepared, you might to share the mud with a member of the opposite gender.

Happy Muddy Face

Hoyoland (保養ランド) is the name of a famous mud bath in Beppu, Oita, that draws visitors from around the world. If you are a nut about hot springs, add this onsen to your muddy bucket list. Admission is 1,100 yen for adults, and accommodation is also available. But a day trip is sufficient since the building is rundown and Beppu has a wide choice of hotels, inns, and guesthouses. At Hoyoland, males and females have their own indoor baths, but part of the outdoor bath is shared. Everyone is told to cover their private regions with the traditional tiny onsen towel, but with the towels being so skimpy, very shy individuals may decide not to go outside. If so, though, they will miss views of Beppu's green or golden grassy hills.

Deep in the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture is a unique Japanese inn named Okuyama Ryokan (奥山旅館). Okuyama Ryokan is just one of a few buildings in a village that is perched like a nest in the mountainous interior of Japan that most foreigners miss. This inn has several indoor and outdoor baths with all the mud you desire. Some people like to leave their hand prints on the walls or wooden posts. Getting into the baths is like soaking in any other spring. But if you scrape your hands along the bottoms, you can get a nice handful of squishy mud for smoothing over your body or creating prehistoric-looking art.

Across Japan, in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu is another wonderful bathing facility called Suzume-no-yu. All sorts of baths, clear and muddy, indoor and outdoor, same sex and separated, are available. This was my first exposure to both mud baths and mixed-sex bathing. I was surprised to share baths with a wide range of young and old people who were all barely covered with towels. A few older ladies were not very particular whether their breasts were exposed or not. The environment and the atmosphere was as relaxed as the mud-and-heat-soaked bodies. Alas, this was years before I started blogging, and I lack photographs to show you.You just have to go there yourself.

Luxurious Japanese Hot Spring with Sunset View (Shiomiso Inn)

Which is the best hot spring with an ocean view in Niigata? Previous to my recent ablution in the thermal waters of Senami Onsen, I had thought that the answer was clear. But now, after a long debate with myself, I have to concede that first place does not belong to one specific hot spring hotel.

The Shiomiso Inn in Murakami City is located on a beach with a westerly view, and the baths are gorgeous. This Japanese ryokan in the onsen village named Senami Onsen is now tied for first place with Senaminoyu.   Shiomiso's website posts that it is "the inn with the most beautiful sunset according to Nihon Keizai Shinbun's Nikkei PLUS 1 Nandemo Ranking." 

This ryokan also has a history of being visited by one of Japan's premier female poets, Akiko Yosano. In front of the inn is a foot bath where she reportedly soaked her feet while composing poetry. If you go there, be sure to read the sign with information about her. Click to read about Yosano and other Murakami foot baths, or ashiyu (足湯).

While researching foot baths in Murakami, I had soaked my tired paws in the foot bath at the front of Shimiso, but I did not indulge in its wonderful whole-body baths and enjoy the view from the back of the inn until just recently. And I, a fairly experienced bather, with around five hundred experiences at different Japanese hot springs under my towel, was more than satisfied with the visual, tactile, and audio stimulation.

From both the indoor and outdoor baths and the sauna, watching the rise and fall of the waves is  hypnotically relaxing. The outdoor baths are close enough for bathers to hear the waves slapping and splashing on the coast.  A variety of baths made of wood or stone or ceramics allow different skin sensations. The temperature of the slightly brownish mineral water varied from bath to bath, with the hottest one, a small rectangular hinoki (Japanese cypress) tub, a somewhat shocking 45 degrees Celsius, which I find is the border between pleasure and pain. The temperature of the mineral water where it first comes from the earth is over 90 degrees Celsius.

Visitors with a yen for luxury and a lot of yen to spend, can opt to stay in rooms with private outdoor balcony baths.  As for thrifty me, a short visit does the trick. For 1,000 yen, I had a delicious taste of luxury and hedonistic, healthy pleasure. But, it made me want more. If I win the next lottery, I will celebrate by staying in the most luxurious rooms at Shiomiso.

Helpful Directions for Novices to the Ancient Bathing Arts

Getting to Senami Onsen takes just over an hour by car from Niigata City, depending on weather and traffic conditions. Driving  in winter can be dangerous and slow. But Murakami and other sections of Northern Niigata Prefecture have a lot to offer visitors. Just up the road from Senami Onsen is the Sasagawa-nagare Coast, which is famous for its craggy rock formations, fresh fish, and tasty salt. For specific directions on access to Shiomiso, click on this link and scroll to the bottom of the page. 

If you go, please comment on your experience.

Artistic Onsen with Carbonated Water

Why name a hot spring building that was designed with sculptures and sections of charred lumber after a popular summer drink? The word lemonade is reportedly the source of the name for Ramune or Lamune Onsen (ラムネ温泉). Various springs in and around the remote town of Nagayu Onsen, Oita Prefecture, discharge naturally carbonated water that bubbles like a fizzy lemon drink. The artistic surroundings, the greenery, the bath design, and the unique water quality create an incomparable Japanese onsen experience.

Only Elite Dogs Are Allowed

Bring along your lover, special friend, or family members and rent one of the family rooms, or kazokuburo (家族風呂）for an intimate experience. We found a changing area, windows with a garden view, and two baths in our kazokuburo. The circular one is filled with constantly flowing carbonated water. It is not as hot as the rectangular bath, whose water comes from a different source.

Carbonation seems to disappear at very high temperatures. Slowly alternating between the two baths and a cold shower for an hour revitalized our bodies and mental outlook. When my wife and I bathed at Lamune, tiny bubbles briefly clung to our bodies before rising to the surface and popping. My friend, who often visits there, told me that the intensity of the carbonation varies daily. Natural hot springs are unpredictable, so visits to the same hot springs on different days may offer dissimilar experiences.

A door to a private room at Ramune, Onsen. The cost of renting a room for your exclusive use is 2,000 yen per hour.

Lamune Onsen also has large communal gender-separated baths. Afterward, you can stroll around the building, which also has an art gallery on the premises, or walk outside and watch ducks in the nearby river. The air in the sleepy hot spring village is clean and fresh, just like the water, and there are many freshwater springs from which you can bottle water for free.  Several high-quality Japanese ryokans with traditional architecture are available if you want to spend the night. There are plenty of other hot springs. One of the most unusual ones is a free bath that is in the middle of a river and visible from many directions. The name is Ganiyu (ガニ湯).

Sign at the Entrance

The inside of the hot spring often has art displayed on the walls. A variety of local souvenirs are for sale, too. Souvenirs include t-shirts, bottles of local water, and Japanese sweets. There are also pamphlets about local happenings in Kyushu. Although Nagayu is far from the nearest big city, Oita, visiting is worthwhile. The Lamune Onsen homepage is in Japanese only.