Japan Onsen Atlas温泉アトラス

Spring type (therapeutic classes)

Chloride spring

Salt is the main component. A film of salt keeps you warm after bathing — the "heat spring". Common near the coast.

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A steaming river and footbath in snow
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Chatama (talk) CC BY-SA 3.0 View original page

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A steaming river and footbath in snow Chatama (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Kawayu Onsen

川湯温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 2

AcidicSulfurIronSulfateChloride

Water acidic enough to corrode a nail runs as an open river through the middle of town.

Hotels along the Tokachi River 663highland · CC BY 2.5

Tokachigawa Onsen

十勝川温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 6

ChlorideBicarbonate

Not volcanic heat but ancient plants: the brown, silky 'moor' spring that defines the type in Japan.

Exterior of a single-storey bathhouse 切干大根 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Toyotomi Onsen

豊富温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 5

IodineChlorideBicarbonate

They drilled for oil and struck hot water: an amber, petrol-scented spring that draws long-stay bathers from all over Japan.

Grey crater floor of Jigokudani with rising steam Calistemon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Noboribetsu Onsen

登別温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 1

SulfurChlorideSulfateIronAcidicBicarbonateRadon

Ten thousand tonnes of water a day and nine kinds of spring, all boiling out of a single valley called Hell.

A mountain rising beyond the lake Soica2001 (talk) · Public domain

Marukoma Onsen

丸駒温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 4

ChlorideBicarbonateSulfate

The bath is exactly as deep as Lake Shikotsu is high that day: an open-air tub joined to the lake.

People sitting at a roofed footbath OraMAAG · CC BY 4.0

Yunokawa Onsen

湯の川温泉

Hokkaido · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 7

Chloride

Five minutes from the airport, at the end of the tram line: a spring of 4,861 litres a minute in the middle of a working port city.

Aerial photo of hot-spring hotels lining a bay, with a small wooded island offshore ブルーノ・プラス · CC BY 4.0

Asamushi Onsen

浅虫温泉

Aomori · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 11

SulfateChloride

Twenty-five minutes by local train from Aomori, you step off the platform straight into a hot-spring town with Mutsu Bay at your feet.

An open-air hot-spring pool set among rocks on the shore at dusk おにく · CC0

Furofushi Onsen

黄金崎不老不死温泉

Aomori · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 12

ChlorideIron

A rust-brown pool cut into the rocks at the very edge of the Sea of Japan, with nothing between you and the sunset.

A timber bath hall with a high ceiling 張振 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tsuta Onsen

蔦温泉

Aomori · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 10

SulfateBicarbonateChloride

The spring bubbles up between the floorboards of the bath itself: a thousand-year-old hot spring at a lone inn in a beech forest.

A large milky-white outdoor pool ringed by rocks Yas Nakano · CC BY-SA 3.0

Sukawa Onsen

須川温泉

Iwate · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 16

IronSulfurSulfateChlorideAcidic

At 1,126 metres on the flank of Mt Kurikoma, 6,000 litres a minute of strongly acidic water pour into Dainichi-yu, an open-air bath big enough for fifty.

Entrance of a wooden communal bathhouse Zhaitengli · CC BY 4.0

Naruko Onsen

鳴子温泉

Miyagi · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 18

SulfurSulfateBicarbonateChlorideSimpleIronAcidic

Seven of Japan's ten official spring types in one valley. The communal Takinoyu by the station costs 300 yen, and the town lends you wooden geta to clatter from bath to bath.

A steaming barren valley with inn buildings and lingering snow あおもりくま · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tamagawa Hot Spring

玉川温泉

Akita · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 13

AcidicChloride

At pH 1.2 and roughly 9,000 litres a minute from a single vent, Japan's most acidic hot spring pours out of a steaming valley.

A wooden gate with a long thatched-roof building beyond lumoplank · CC0

Tsurunoyu Onsen

鶴の湯温泉

Akita · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 14

SulfurChlorideBicarbonate

Below a thatched guardhouse, a milky-white pool bubbles up from the ground beneath your feet. This is the oldest inn in the Nyuto hot-spring valley.

Three- and four-storey wooden inns along a river lumoplank · CC0

Ginzan Onsen

銀山温泉

Yamagata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 20

SulfurChloride

Along both banks of the Ginzan River stand three- and four-storey wooden inns from the 1920s and 30s. On snowy nights the gas lamps come on.

A street in a mountain onsen town 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0

Zaō Onsen

蔵王温泉

Yamagata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 19

AcidicSulfurSulfateChloride

Strongly acidic sulfur water at pH 1.25–1.6. Three communal baths for 300 yen each, a vast riverside open-air bath, and in winter the snow monsters of Zao.

Snow-covered ryokan street in Hijiori Onsen Totti · CC BY-SA 4.0

Hijiori Onsen

肘折温泉

Yamagata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 21

ChlorideBicarbonate

At five in the morning a market opens under the eaves of a snow-country spa village that has been in business since 807.

Stone steps of Ikaho Onsen ShuichiNakayama · CC BY 4.0

Ikaho Onsen

伊香保温泉

Gunma · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 28

SulfateBicarbonateChloride

The spring runs beneath 365 stone steps and is tapped off to the inns tier by tier. A town built around the iron-browned 'golden water'.

Steaming Yubatake with wooden channels Aspere · CC0

Kusatsu Onsen

草津温泉

Gunma · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 25

AcidicSulfurSulfateChloride

Thirty-two thousand litres a minute of pH 2.1 acid water rise in the middle of town and cool as they run down wooden channels.

Red bridge and Sekizenkan main building pentaboxes · CC BY-SA 2.0

Shima Onsen

四万温泉

Gunma · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 26

ChlorideSulfate

A wooden bath-inn built in 1691 still takes guests, and you can drink the water at fountains by the river. A clear spring named for 'curing forty thousand ills'.

Kawa-no-ie inn at Yoro-keikoku Onsen 白蛇の騎士 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Yōrō-keikoku Onsen

養老渓谷温泉

Chiba · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 36

ChlorideBicarbonate

Dark-brown water in a Boso gorge where there are no volcanoes: the spring comes up cold, around 20°C, and is heated for the bath.

Kogome-no-yu bathhouse NY066 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Yugawara Onsen

湯河原温泉

Kanagawa · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 34

SimpleChlorideSulfate

A spring sung about in the eighth-century Manyoshu still rises in the Fujiki valley, sixty minutes by train from Yokohama.

Hot-spring distribution facility at Echigo-Yuzawa Syced · CC0

Echigo Yuzawa Onsen

越後湯沢温泉

Niigata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 39

SimpleSulfurChloride

A bullet-train station where, without leaving the building, you can taste sake from every brewery in Niigata and then bathe in hot-spring water laced with it.

Streetscape of Tsukioka Onsen 663highland · CC BY 2.5

Tsukioka Onsen

月岡温泉

Niigata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 38

SulfurChloride

A green so vivid people think it is bath salts: the sulfur in the water shows itself as colour in the tub.

Taka-no-yu bathhouse in snow KQuhen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Matsunoyama Onsen

松之山温泉

Niigata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 37

Chloride

Seawater trapped twelve million years ago comes back up heated to 88°C, salty enough to make salt, in a valley buried in snow.

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