Ōyu Bathhouse, Nozawa Onsen
The finest of Nozawa's thirteen free village bathhouses.
小石川人晃, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Bathing temperature
- 44°C
- Bathing
- Indoor
Nozawa Onsen's hot water is managed communally, and thirteen soto-yu bathhouses are maintained by the residents for anyone to use. Ōyu, rebuilt in traditional temple-carpentry style, is the grandest of them: a wooden hall with two hot pools and no facilities beyond a place to leave your clothes.
Recommendations
Hotels nearby
Explore places to stay near Ōyu Bathhouse, Nozawa Onsen.
The water
Thermal water
- Source
- Nozawa Onsen springs
- Mineralisation
- Sulphur spring
- Character
- Undiluted, very hot sulphur water piped to the village soto-yu bathhouses.
Practical information
Free, with a donation box; open early until late. The water is very hot and undiluted, there is no soap or shampoo, and normal Japanese bathhouse etiquette applies — wash and rinse before entering.
Location
Related places
More thermal baths in Japan
Hakone/Japan
Hakone Yumoto Onsen
The oldest onsen district in Hakone, where ryokan baths look onto the Sukumo river valley.
Bathing temperature 41°C
Beppu/Japan
Takegawara Onsen
Beppu's 1879 bathhouse, known for its hot sand baths.
Bathing temperature 43°C
Matsuyama/Japan
Dōgo Onsen Honkan
One of Japan's oldest hot springs, in a wooden bathhouse of 1894.
Bathing temperature 42°C