Kinosaki Onsen — photo: 663highland · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Kinosaki onsen: the seven baths, the hot salt water, and getting there
Kinosaki is the onsen town where the bathing happens outside your inn. There are seven public baths along a willow-lined canal, and the custom is to walk between them in a yukata and wooden sandals, with a basket in hand, from late afternoon into the evening. Most guides stop at listing the seven. This one is about the rest: what the water is and how unusual it is for the Kyoto and Osaka side of Japan, how the rounds actually work, how long it takes to get there, and when Arima, an hour from Osaka, is the better choice.
What the numbers say
Kinosaki is recorded with sources from 37 to 83 °C, all of it chloride water, the salty kind. It is the only water type the town lists. On its own, chloride is not rare: 689 of the towns in our database of 1,538 list it, and it is the most common type in Japan. Heat is the difference. Of the 539 chloride towns with a source temperature on record, 47 reach 80 °C or more.
It matters more because of where Kinosaki is. Across the six prefectures of Kansai (Hyōgo, Kyoto, Osaka, Shiga, Nara and Wakayama), 86 towns have a source temperature on record. Only 19 reach 42 °C, the point at which a bath can be run without heating, and only five reach 80 °C: Yumura and Arima at 98 °C, Yunomine at 92 °C, Nanki-Shirahama at 85 °C, and Kinosaki at 83 °C. Most of the onsen close to Kyoto and Osaka are warm springs heated to bathing temperature; our Kansai guide goes through them. Kinosaki is one of the few places in the region where the water arrives hot.
What you notice in the bath is the salt. Chloride water tastes faintly of the sea if you get it on your lips, it is clear or very slightly cloudy, and it has almost no smell. It is gentle on skin and on jewellery compared with the sulfur and acid water of towns like Kusatsu. People often say they stay warm for a long time after a salt bath. That is a common impression, not a claim we can check, but it is one reason the town suits a walk between baths on a cold evening.
How the bath rounds work
The practice is called 外湯めぐり (soto-yu meguri), "going round the outside baths". The seven are さとの湯 (Sato-no-yu), by the station; 地蔵湯 (Jizō-yu), 柳湯 (Yanagi-yu), 一の湯 (Ichi-no-yu) and 御所の湯 (Gosho-no-yu) along the canal in the middle of town; and まんだら湯 (Mandara-yu) and 鴻の湯 (Kō-no-yu) at the far, uphill end. From the station to Kō-no-yu is roughly a 20-minute walk without stops.
- If you stay the night, your inn gives you a pass or a card that gets you into all seven, usually for the whole of your stay including the morning you leave. Ask for it at check-in if nobody mentions it. This is the main reason to stay in Kinosaki rather than visit for the day.
- If you come for the day, the baths sell single entries and a one-day pass for all seven. Prices change, so check at the bath or the station. The pass pays for itself at the third bath.
- Each bath closes one day a week, and not all on the same day, so there are usually six open. One may also be shut for maintenance. Check the list at your inn, not a blog post from a past year.
- They are different buildings. Some have an outdoor bath, one is set against a cave-like rock face, one sits up a slope with a garden, some are small and plain. The water is the same salt water throughout; the setting is what changes.
Do not try to do all seven in one evening. Three or four, spread out, with a walk and a drink of water in between, is plenty. Each is a full public bath: wash first, towel out of the water, and follow the rest of our etiquette guide. Most have soap and shampoo, but bring a small towel.
The yukata walk
In most onsen towns, a yukata is what you wear inside the inn. In Kinosaki it is what you wear in the street, and the town is set up for it: shops and game arcades stay open into the evening, and nobody looks twice at a family in matching cotton robes. Inns lend yukata and 下駄 (geta), the wooden sandals, and many let you choose a pattern at check-in.
A few practical things. Geta are noisy and slippery on wet stone; walk slowly on the bridges. From November the evenings are cold on the Sea of Japan coast, and inns hand out a padded jacket, the 丹前 (tanzen), to wear over the yukata. Carry a small bag for your phone and pass. For how to wear the yukata itself, see the yukata, and what else to expect in the room.
Getting there
Kinosaki is on the Sea of Japan side of Hyōgo, 113 km from Kyoto Station and 121 km from Osaka Station in a straight line. By rail and road it is further than that suggests.
- From Kyoto. A JR limited express runs direct to 城崎温泉駅 (Kinosaki Onsen Station) in about two hours and twenty minutes. Some services are split or terminate earlier, so check that yours goes all the way.
- From Osaka. A limited express runs from Osaka Station in about two and a half hours. There are also direct highway buses from Osaka and Kobe, which are slower but cheaper and take large luggage underneath.
- From Tokyo. Take the Shinkansen to Kyoto or Shin-Osaka and change. Allow about five hours door to door. By air, Tajima Airport has flights from Osaka (Itami), with a bus of about 40 minutes into town.
The station is at one end of town and the baths start right outside it. Most inns will collect you or your luggage from the station if you call ahead.
A day trip from Kyoto or Osaka is possible, since it is under five hours of travel in total. It is not the best way to see it. The town is at its best in the evening and the early morning, which is when day visitors are not there. One night is the usual stay.
When to go
Winter is the high season, and the reason is crab. The snow crab caught off this coast is served in full-course dinners at inns from roughly November to March, and room prices rise to match. If you want the crab, book early. If you do not eat crab or shellfish, tell the inn when you book, not when you arrive; see ryokan meals for how that works.
Snow in town is common but not guaranteed. Summer is quieter and cheaper, and the canal is at its greenest. Weekends and Japanese holidays at any time of year are busy, and the most popular baths have a queue in the evening; go early or late.
Kinosaki or Arima?
This is the choice most people staying in Kansai are weighing, and the two are very different.
Arima is 25 km from Osaka Station, about an hour by train or bus. Its sources reach 98 °C, and it lists four water types, including the rust-brown 金泉 (kinsen), "gold water", and the clear 銀泉 (ginsen), "silver water". It is a steep, compact old town on the edge of Kobe, with two public bathhouses and most of its bathing inside the inns. It works as a day trip or a one-night stop between sightseeing.
Kinosaki is two and a half hours away, on the other coast, with one kind of water and seven baths to walk between. It asks for a night, and it gives you an evening that is the whole point of the trip.
Choose Arima if you are short of time, want the unusual colour, or are basing yourself in Osaka or Kobe. Choose Kinosaki if you want the yukata-and-canal evening, are travelling in the crab season, or want to bathe in several places without choosing an inn for its bath.
Nearby, and very different
Yumura, about 29 km to the west, is the hottest water in the region: 98 °C from a single source, 470 litres a minute, with 24 inns. People boil eggs in baskets in the spring by the river. It is reached by bus, and it pairs well with Kinosaki for a second night.
Closer, along the coast, are smaller places with milder water. Yūhigaura, 15 km away in Kyoto Prefecture, is a beach town of 40 to 43 °C named for its sunsets over the sea. Shichikama, 29 km away, has a single source at 46.5 °C and a pH around 7.2 to 7.4. Of the 11 towns within 50 km of Kinosaki with a source temperature on record, four reach 42 °C, and only Yumura is hotter than Kinosaki.
Across the border in Tottori, Iwai, 40 km away, is a 50 °C sulfate spring with three inns, and a quiet contrast to Kinosaki's crowds.
Things not to do
Do not try to do all seven baths in one go.
Do not trust an old list of which bath closes on which day. Ask at your inn.
Do not leave your pass or card in the changing-room locker when you move on. You need it at every bath, and at the inn.
Do not book a crab-season dinner plan if anyone in your group cannot eat crab, without telling the inn in advance.
Do not assume tattoos are fine. Policies at the public baths and inns vary and change; check before you go, or book an inn with a private bath. See going to an onsen with tattoos.
New to this? Start with how an onsen stay actually works and onsen etiquette. For other towns in the region, see onsen near Kyoto and Osaka. For the water, see reading the water sign. Shy about public baths? See baths you can have to yourself.