Japan Onsen Atlas温泉アトラス

Spring type (therapeutic classes)

Sulfur spring

The boiled-egg smell. Often milky white — the most "onsen-like" of all. Comes in hydrogen-sulfide and sulfur types.

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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

Browse all onsen

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.

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 large wooden inn in the mountains ゆ＾ω＾び · CC BY-SA 2.1 jp

Sukayu Onsen

酸ヶ湯

Aomori · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 9

AcidicSulfur

A 160-tatami bathhouse of hiba cypress without a single pillar, where men and women share acidic water under Japan's deepest snow.

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.

Entrance of a wooden mountain hot-spring inn らんで · CC BY-SA 4.0

Goshougake Onsen

後生掛温泉

Akita · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 15

Sulfur

Mud bath, box steam bath, bubbling volcano bath, a natural-steam sauna: seven ways to take the waters under one roof.

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.

Attaka-yu bathhouse in snow Purplepumpkins · CC BY-SA 3.0

Takayu Onsen

高湯温泉

Fukushima · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 22

Sulfur

Nine sources, 2,589 litres a minute, and not a drop of tap water or a single boiler: the milky water is cooled only by gravity on its way down the hill.

Spring huts standing in a snowy marsh Σ64 · CC BY 3.0

Nikkō Yumoto Onsen

日光湯元温泉

Tochigi · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 32

Sulfur

At 1,500 metres beside a lake, spring huts stand in a marsh where clear water turns milky white the moment it meets the air.

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.

Milky open-air bath surrounded by snow SpringField1967 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Manza Onsen

万座温泉

Gunma · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 29

SulfurAcidic

At 1,800 metres, 5.4 million litres of sulfur water a day. Thin air, deep snow, and a milky bath in the middle of it.

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.

Inns along the river at Shimobe Onsen 浅野ます道 · CC BY 3.0

Shimobe Spa

下部温泉

Yamanashi · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 45

SimpleSulfur

Water at 30 °C rises from the rock beneath your feet in 'Shingen's hidden spring'. An hour in the cool bath, then a warm-up in the new hot source: a toji village with two kinds of water.

Stone street and wooden inns Lsattayamas · CC BY-SA 4.0

Shibu Onsen

渋温泉

Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 48

SulfateChlorideSulfurSimple

Borrow a key from your inn, take a towel, walk the stone-paved street and stamp it at nine public baths in turn. In Shibu Onsen, staying the night is the ticket to the baths.

Shirahone public open-air bath Soica2001 (talk) · Public domain

Shirahone Onsen

白骨温泉

Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 50

SulfurBicarbonate

Clear as it emerges, white once it meets the air. Shirahone's milkiness comes not just from sulfur but from calcium carbonate that solidifies, even building the 'funto-kyu' spring mounds.

Macaques bathing in a hot pool Kelly Drewett · CC BY-SA 4.0

Jigokudani Onsen

地獄谷温泉

Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 49

SulfateChlorideSulfur

In 1961 a young monkey followed a dropped apple into the inn's open-air bath, the first monkey anywhere known to bathe in a hot spring. There is still only one inn.

Exterior of the wooden Oyu bathhouse 小石川人晃 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nozawa Onsen

野沢温泉

Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 47

Sulfur

All 13 public baths are kept by village 'yu-nakama' bath guilds; you drop a donation in the box and go in. At the Ogama source, villagers still boil vegetables in 90 °C water.

The O-yu bathhouse building in Bessho Onsen ほっきー · CC0

Bessho Onsen

別所温泉

Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 51

Sulfur

Step off a one-line country railway and three 300-yen public baths and Japan's only surviving octagonal pagoda are all within walking distance.

Riverside open-air bath Shinhotaka-no-yu Soica2001 (talk) · Public domain

Shinhotaka Onsen

新穂高温泉

Gifu · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 54

SimpleChlorideBicarbonateSulfur

Look up at 3,000-metre peaks from a riverside open-air bath, then ride a double-deck gondola from the same spot to 2,156 metres.

Hirayu Onsen village surrounded by mountains Alpsdake · CC BY-SA 4.0

Hirayu Onsen

平湯温泉

Gifu · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 55

BicarbonateChlorideSimpleSulfur

Some forty sources pour out 8,600 litres a minute, and right by the bus terminal are a donation-only bath and a complex of sixteen open-air pools.

Dream Bridge spanning an emerald-green lake Tetsuji Sakakibara from Tokyo, Japan · CC BY-SA 2.0

Sumatakyō Onsen

寸又峡温泉

Shizuoka · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 59

Sulfur

Forty minutes from Senzu Station on one of six buses a day. In a gorge at the gateway to the Southern Alps, soak in a sulfur spring called 'the beauty-making bath' and cross a suspension bridge that takes ten people at a time.

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