Tottori

Tottori has 15 onsen areas and 363 springs (Ministry of the Environment, FY2024). The number of areas is among the lowest in Japan, but 114 of its springs run at 42°C or hotter. Misasa is known for its radon cures, Kaike faces the Sea of Japan, Iwai is said to be the oldest spa in the old province of Inaba, and at Hawai and Togo hot water rises from the bed of a lake, so spas with very different characters line up from east to west.

Main onsen areas

In the east (old Inaba) are Iwai in Iwami, and Yoshioka, Shikano, Hamamura and Tottori Onsen near the station in Tottori city. The centre has Misasa, Sekigane in Kurayoshi, and Hawai and Togo on the shores of Lake Togo in Yurihama. In the west, Kaike sits on the coast at Yonago.

Characteristic spring types

Chloride springs are the most common in our records, followed by sulfate, simple and radon springs. Misasa is a radon spring, known as a radium spa since radon was confirmed in its water in 1914. Kaike is a sodium-calcium chloride spring at 63–83°C, flowing at 4,456.5 litres a minute from 19 sources. Hawai and Togo are chloride-sulfate springs, and Iwai a sulfate spring that rises at 49.8°C.

Reachable by public transport

Misasa is about 20 minutes by bus from Kurayoshi on the JR San'in Line, which is about 3 h 15 min from Osaka on the Super Hakuto limited express. Iwai is about 10 minutes by Nikko bus from Iwami Station on the JR San'in Line, and Kaike about 19 minutes by bus from JR Yonago.

For solo travellers

Misasa is an old cure spa where solo guests have always been the norm, and its riverside open-air bath and drinking fountains are free. Iwai keeps a few quiet inns from its cure-spa days, and its public bath welcomes day visitors.

Food & culture

Misasa grew from the legend of a samurai who spared a white wolf and was shown the spring by a deity in a dream; the public bath Kabu-yu is named for the camphor stump the water first rose beneath. Together with Mt Mitoku and its cliff-hung Nageire-do hall it is a Japan Heritage site. Iwai keeps the custom of yukamuri, in which bathers balance a towel on their heads and ladle hot water over themselves while singing. Kaike is the birthplace of Japanese triathlon, first held there in 1981, and Hawai has a legend that carp revealed the water welling up from the lakebed.