Dōgo Onsen — photo: Arnaud Malon · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The 3 best onsen towns near Hiroshima
If you are in Hiroshima and want a night at a proper hot spring town, go to Dōgo across the Inland Sea in Matsuyama, Yunotsu on the Sea of Japan coast, or Yuda in Yamaguchi. All three need no car, and among the onsen within 100 km of Hiroshima Station they are the best known. None of them is in Hiroshima Prefecture. That is not an accident, and it is the first thing worth knowing before you search for "onsen in Hiroshima".
Why these three, in one paragraph
We did not pick by taste. We took the 39 onsen in our data that lie within 100 km of Hiroshima Station in a straight line, kept the ones you can reach by train or bus without a car, and ranked them by how often each town's Wikipedia article is read, as a measure of how established a town is. The full method, with numbers, is at the end.
Why Hiroshima itself is short of hot water
Hiroshima Prefecture has springs, but not hot ones. Our records list 11 onsen in the prefecture. Eight of them have a temperature on record, and none reaches 42 °C; the warmest is 30 °C. Eight of the 11 are radioactive springs, the kind with trace radon, which in Japan is a mineral category, not a warning. Water that cool has to be heated before anyone can bathe in it, so the baths you find in and around the city are mostly in hotels and day-use spas rather than in old towns built around a source.
That is why the ryokan lists you find for "Hiroshima onsen" are mostly about the inn, the view of the Inland Sea or Miyajima, and the food. Those can be lovely. But if what you want is a town where the water comes out of the ground hot and the streets are full of people in yukata, you have to leave the prefecture. Our map of where Japan's onsen are shows the same pattern across the Chūgoku region.
Three directions: by sea, over the mountains, along the Shinkansen
The three towns sit in three different directions from Hiroshima, and each is reached in a different way. Dōgo is 67 km to the south, across the water in Shikoku. Yunotsu is 78 km to the north, on the far side of the Chūgoku Mountains. Yuda is 97 km to the west, along the Sanyo Shinkansen. Distances are straight lines; the trips are longer.
1. Dōgo: the old town across the Inland Sea
Why it made it. Dōgo Onsen is the best-known onsen in the whole pool by a wide margin: 3,102 in our count, more than twice the second.
The town. Dōgo is a hot spring district on the edge of the city of Matsuyama, built around a large wooden public bathhouse, Dōgo Onsen Honkan, with arcades of shops leading to it. It is often called one of the oldest onsen in Japan. Plenty is within walking distance: Isaniwa Shrine and the temple of Hōgon-ji are 0.3 km away, Ishite-ji, one of the temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage, 1 km, and Matsuyama Castle 2 km.
The water. Dōgo is a simple spring, recorded at 42 to 51 °C. Simple means low in dissolved minerals: clear, mild, and a good first onsen. We have no pH on record for it.
Getting there. From Hiroshima Station, take the Hiroden tram to Hiroshima Port (Ujina). Boats cross the Seto Inland Sea from there to Matsuyama Tourist Port: a fast passenger boat and a slower car ferry. From the port, the local Iyotetsu railway runs into Matsuyama, and the Iyotetsu tram ends at 道後温泉 (Dōgo Onsen), a short walk from the bathhouse. The JR Pass does not cover the boat, the Iyotetsu train or the tram. By rail alone you would have to go round through Okayama, which takes much longer.
Good for: a first onsen trip, a town you can explore on foot, anyone who also wants to see Shikoku. Watch out for: the sea crossing is the part that decides your day; check the boat times before you book the inn, and allow for weather.
2. Yunotsu: the small port town on the Sea of Japan
Why it made it. Yunotsu Onsen is second at 1,420.
The town. Yunotsu is a narrow old town at the head of a small harbour in Shimane Prefecture. The port was part of the trade of the Iwami Ginzan silver mine, and the town is included in the Iwami Ginzan World Heritage site. It is a quiet place, not a resort: a single street of inns and baths rather than big hotels. Nearby are the ruins of Yamabuki Castle, above the silver mine, 7.4 km away, and the Nima Sand Museum 7.5 km.
The water. Yunotsu is a chloride spring: salty water that leaves a thin film on the skin, so you stay warm for a long time after the bath. We have no temperature or pH on record for it.
Getting there. This is the hard one. No train crosses the mountains directly between Hiroshima and Yunotsu. The usual way is a highway bus from Hiroshima to a town on the San'in coast, then the JR San'in Line to 温泉津 (Yunotsu) Station, then a community bus of about 8 minutes, or a walk of about 15 minutes. Buses and San'in Line trains are infrequent, so plan the connection before you go. The JR Pass covers the San'in Line but not the highway bus.
Good for: a quiet night in an old town, combining a bath with the Iwami Ginzan silver mine. Watch out for: it is the longest trip of the three, and the town is small, so book ahead.
3. Yuda: the hot water, one change off the Shinkansen
Why it made it. Yuda Onsen is third at 897. It is the furthest of the three in a straight line, but it is JR all the way.
The town. Yuda is a hot spring district inside the city of Yamaguchi, with hotels along its streets and free footbaths. It is a city district rather than a village, which makes it an easy base: Kōnomine Castle is 2.3 km away, the Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art 2.3 km, and the temple of Rurikō-ji, with its five-storey pagoda, 3.1 km.
The water. Yuda is a simple spring at pH 9.14, strongly alkaline, and recorded at 64 to 73 °C. It is the hottest water of the three, and the only one with a pH on record. Alkaline water feels smooth and makes bath floors slippery, so walk carefully.
Getting there. Take the Sanyo Shinkansen west from Hiroshima to 新山口 (Shin-Yamaguchi) on a train that stops there, then the JR Yamaguchi Line to 湯田温泉 (Yudaonsen), and walk about 10 minutes. The Yamaguchi Line is the slow part and runs infrequently, so check the connection. The JR Pass covers the whole trip.
Good for: the JR Pass, hot water, a stop on the way between Hiroshima and Fukuoka. Watch out for: it is a city spa district; if you want an old town, choose Dōgo or Yunotsu.
Which of the three?
- A first onsen, or the most to see on foot: Dōgo.
- A quiet old town, with the silver mine: Yunotsu.
- On the JR Pass, or on the way to Fukuoka: Yuda.
- The hottest water: Yuda, at 64 to 73 °C.
The towns that only just missed
Arifuku in Shimane came fourth at 449: a small hillside town of 8 inns with a simple spring at 30 to 50 °C, about 35 minutes by local bus from Gōtsu Station on the San'in Line. Yuki was fifth at 440, and it is the best-known onsen inside Hiroshima Prefecture: two inns in the hills of Hiroshima city, about 70 minutes by bus from Itsukaichi Station, with radioactive water at 29.8 °C. The gorge of Ryūzu-kyō is 8.3 km away. If you only have an afternoon, it is the closest real onsen to the city.
If you are going to Miyajima, look at Miyahama (134). It has 7 inns, it is about 5 minutes by bus from Ōnoura Station on the JR Sanyo Line, and Itsukushima Shrine is 6.4 km away. Its water is a radioactive spring too, with no temperature on record.
With a radius of 70 km, Yunotsu and Yuda drop out and Arifuku and Yuki take second and third. From 79 km Yunotsu comes back in second, with Arifuku third, and from 97 km Yuda takes third.
How we picked these three
- Starting pool: 39 onsen in our data within 100 km of Hiroshima Station in a straight line, measured to the onsen itself. 5 are within 50 km, 18 within 70 km and 28 within 80 km. Hiroshima is not one of the cities in our travel-time data, so we used distance, not time.
- No car needed: we went down the list from the best known. The first six (Dōgo, Yunotsu, Yuda, Arifuku, Yuki and Nibukawa) are all marked in our travel data as reached by train or boat and a short walk or local bus.
- Known: ranked by how often each town's Wikipedia article is read. Dōgo 3,102, Yunotsu 1,420, Yuda 897. The next ones are Arifuku at 449 and Yuki at 440.
- Not used: scenery, inn quality, price, tattoo policy or how good the food is. We have no data that ranks those fairly, so we did not pretend to.
- About the water: Dōgo is recorded at 42 to 51 °C and Yuda at 64 to 73 °C. We have no temperature for Yunotsu. Of the 11 onsen in Hiroshima Prefecture, the warmest is 30 °C. The water did not decide the ranking.
- Distances are straight lines, not travel times. Boats, highway buses and local lines all run on timetables that change; check the route on Google Maps before you go.
For every town you can reach by train, see onsen you can reach without a car and onsen on the JR Pass. Heading on to Fukuoka? See the best onsen near Fukuoka, where Yuda appears too. Coming from Kyoto or Osaka? See the best onsen near Osaka and Kyoto. Want to know what "simple" or "chloride" means? See onsen water types. New to this? Start with how an onsen stay actually works and onsen etiquette. Tattooed? Read going to an onsen with tattoos before you book.