Hot spring towns of Japan, town by town

Japan has thousands of hot spring towns, and almost none of them have a page in English. This is a catalogue of them: how hot the water comes out of the ground, how acidic it is, how much of it there is, and what actually happens when you stay at one.

1,538 towns · 928 with a photograph · 1,468 with the water type identified · 1,198 with temperature or pH on record

Yūdoku Onsen — photo: Miya.m · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Where people go

Kusatsu OnsenGunma · 草津温泉

Chloride spring+3

Ginzan OnsenYamagata · 銀山温泉

Chloride springSulfur spring

Arima OnsenHyogo · 有馬温泉

Chloride spring+3

Kinosaki OnsenHyogo · 城崎温泉

Chloride spring

Ikaho OnsenGunma · 伊香保温泉

Sulfate spring

Shima OnsenGunma · 四万温泉

Chloride springSulfate spring

Dōgo OnsenEhime · 道後温泉

Simple spring

Akiu OnsenMiyagi · 秋保温泉

Chloride spring

Ogoto OnsenShiga · 雄琴温泉

Simple spring

Jōge OnsenMiyagi · 定義温泉

Simple spring

Sukayu OnsenAomori · 酸ヶ湯

Chloride spring+4

Shuzenji OnsenShizuoka · 修善寺温泉

Simple spring

See all destinations · Browse by water type

Can you get there?

Most hot spring inns are out of town. Start from where you are:

Onsen near Tokyo Onsen near Kyoto and Osaka Onsen you can reach without a car Onsen on the JR Pass

New to this?

An onsen is a bath fed by naturally heated spring water, and the rules around it are simple once someone tells you what they are. You wash first, you go in with nothing on, and you keep your towel out of the water.

How an onsen stay works · Onsen etiquette · Going in with tattoos