Hakone/Japan
Hakone Yumoto Onsen
The oldest onsen district in Hakone, where ryokan baths look onto the Sukumo river valley.
Places
Japan
Every thermal bath and spa published in Japan.
24 thermal baths
Beppu/Japan
Takegawara Onsen
Beppu's 1879 bathhouse, known for its hot sand baths.
Minakami/Japan
Hōshi Onsen Chōjūkan
A Meiji-era wooden bathhouse in the Gunma mountains, bathing over its own spring.
Yunomine Onsen/Japan
Tsuboyu, Yunomine Onsen
A tiny wooden hut over a spring in the Kumano mountains — the only bathing place inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Zaō Onsen/Japan
Zaō Onsen Dai-rotenburo
A large open-air bath built into a mountain stream, fed by some of the most strongly acidic water in Japan.
Gero/Japan
Gero Onsen
One of Japan's three great hot springs, with 84 °C alkaline water above the Hida river.
Matsuyama/Japan
Dōgo Onsen Honkan
One of Japan's oldest hot springs, in a wooden bathhouse of 1894.
Sukayu/Japan
Sukayu Onsen
A vast hinoki-cypress bathhouse in the Hakkōda mountains, famous for its acidic sulphur water and thousand-person bath.
Minamioguni (Kurokawa)/Japan
Kurokawa Onsen
A hot-spring village in the Kumamoto highlands where two dozen inns share their baths with day visitors.
Beppu/Japan
Hyotan Onsen
A Beppu bathhouse in the Kannawa quarter, known for its cascade baths and sand baths.
Obanazawa (Ginzan)/Japan
Ginzan Onsen
A former silver-mining valley in Yamagata lined with Taishō-era wooden ryokan and gas lamps.
Noboribetsu/Japan
Noboribetsu Onsen
Hokkaido's best-known hot-spring resort, fed by the sulphurous vents of Jigokudani.
Toyooka/Japan
Kinosaki Onsen Sato no Yu
A willow-lined onsen town on the Sea of Japan coast where guests move between seven public bathhouses in yukata and wooden geta.
Arima/Japan
Kin no Yu, Arima Onsen
The public bathhouse at Japan's oldest onsen, where iron-rich "golden water" turns rust-brown on contact with the air.
Minakami/Japan
Takaragawa Onsen Osenkaku
Vast riverside rotenburo along the Takara River in the mountains of Gunma.
Ibusuki/Japan
Ibusuki Sunamushi Onsen Saraku
Japan's signature sand steam bath, where geothermal heat rises through a black volcanic beach.
Nyūtō Onsen/Japan
Tsurunoyu Onsen
The oldest inn of the Nyūtō onsen villages, with milky sulphur water and thatched Edo-era lodgings.
Unzen/Japan
Unzen Onsen
Acidic sulphur springs at 700 m on a volcano, beside the steaming ground of the Unzen jigoku.
Kusatsu/Japan
Sainokawara Rotenburo
One of Japan's largest open-air baths, in a valley of steaming acidic springs above Kusatsu.
Shirahone Onsen/Japan
Shirahone Onsen
Milky-white, carbonate-rich mountain onsen in the Japanese Alps.
Yufuin/Japan
Yufuin Onsen
A ryokan town of gentle alkaline springs beneath the twin peaks of Mount Yufu.
Nozawa Onsen/Japan
Ōyu Bathhouse, Nozawa Onsen
The finest of Nozawa's thirteen free village bathhouses.
Beppu/Japan
Kannawa Mushi-yu
An eight-century steam bath on a floor of medicinal herbs.
Yamanouchi/Japan
Shibu Onsen
A stone-paved onsen village in Nagano with nine public baths and a pilgrim's round.