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Kinosaki Onsen — photo: 663highland · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Onsen hopping in Japan: the towns built for it, and how the bath passes work

In some onsen towns you do not stay in one bath. You walk from one to the next, in a yukata or your own clothes, and try three or four in an afternoon or evening. Japanese calls this 湯めぐり (yumeguri), "going round the baths". Most guides cover one town's pass and its price. This one puts the towns side by side: the two different ways a town lets you hop, who is allowed to use each pass, which towns actually give you different water from bath to bath, and what "day pass" means when it is not about baths at all.

The short answer

• Two kinds of town. In some, you walk between the town's public bathhouses, the 外湯 (soto-yu), "outside baths". In others, you use the baths of other inns, with a wooden pass, the 手形 (tegata).
• Check who the pass is for. Some passes are sold to anyone. Some come free with a night at an inn. One, at Nyuto, is sold only to overnight guests.
• Different baths do not always mean different water. In Kinosaki, Gero or Dōgo you are mostly trying different buildings on the same water. In Nyuto or Beppu the water itself changes.
• Three or four baths is enough for one day. Inns that take visitors often stop by mid-afternoon.

Kind one: towns of public bathhouses

Here the town, or its residents, run a set of bathhouses within walking distance of each other. You go in, bathe, dress, and walk to the next. These are ordinary Japanese public baths: naked, wash first, small towel out of the water. The order of things is in our etiquette guide.

• Kinosaki (Hyōgo). Seven public baths along a willow-lined canal, about 20 minutes' walk from end to end. Staying at an inn usually gets you a pass for all seven for your whole stay; day visitors can buy single entries or a one-day pass for all seven. It is the best-known onsen-hopping town in Japan.
• Nozawa (Nagano). Thirteen small public baths, free to use and looked after by the people who live there, on sulfur water recorded at 42 to 90 °C. No pass at all. There is no attendant, so the village's own rules matter more; the Nozawa guide has them.
• Shibu (Nagano). Nine numbered public baths along a stone lane. Guests at the town's inns get a key that opens all nine. Day visitors can use only the ninth, 大湯 (Ōyu), for a fee, and its hours are limited. If hopping is why you are going, stay the night.
• Kusatsu (Gunma). The town has many small public baths used by residents; a few of them, including 白旗の湯 (Shirahata-no-yu) beside the steaming yubatake, are open to visitors free. There are also large paid baths, including the big open-air pool at Sainokawara. The water is strongly acidic, recorded at pH 1.0 to 2.2, so keep it out of your eyes and do not do too many in a row.
• Dōgo (Ehime). Three public bathhouses a few minutes apart, including the 1894 wooden Honkan, a tram ride from central Matsuyama. Each sells its own ticket.
• Beppu (Ōita). Dozens of neighbourhood bathhouses across eight old districts, many costing a few hundred yen or less. No single pass covers them; you pay at each door.

Kind two: towns with a pass for other inns' baths

Here most of the bathing is inside the inns, and the pass lets you into inns you are not staying at. You hand over a sticker or a stamp at the front desk and use their bath. Each inn sets its own visitor hours.

• Kurokawa (Kumamoto). The 入湯手形 (nyūtō tegata), a round wooden tag with stickers for three outdoor baths at participating inns. Kurokawa is where this kind of pass began. Anyone can buy it, at the information centre or the inns, and it does not have to be used in one day.
• Gero (Gifu). The 湯めぐり手形 (yumeguri tegata), also a wooden tag, for three participating inns, one visit each. Sold at the tourist office and inns. Many inns stop taking visitors by mid-afternoon, so do not start late.
• Nyuto (Akita). Seven inns in a forest, each with its own sources. The 湯めぐり帖 (yumeguri-chō) booklet gets you into all seven once each and onto the small shuttle bus between them, but it is sold only to people staying the night at one of the seven. Day visitors can still pay at each inn.

Pass prices and validity change from year to year, and we do not keep them. Check them when you buy. The same goes for the hours of each bath.

Where the water actually changes

Hopping is more interesting when the next bath is different water, not just a different room. Our records list the water types for each onsen town, and of 1,538 towns, 911 have one type on record and only 57 have four or more. Here is how the hopping towns compare:

• Many types, so the baths really differ: Nyuto lists five (chloride, bicarbonate, sulfate, sulfur and radioactive), and the seven inns draw on different ones, from milky white to clear. Beppu also lists five, and two bathhouses a few streets apart can be completely different. Kusatsu lists four, all of it acidic.
• One type, so you are trying buildings: Kinosaki lists chloride only, 37 to 83 °C. Gero lists a simple spring at 84 °C, pH 9.0. Dōgo lists a simple spring at 42 to 51 °C, piped to the public baths and many inns alike. Kurokawa lists sulfur, 80 to 98 °C. Nozawa lists sulfur, 42 to 90 °C.

Neither is better. Kinosaki is about the walk between baths in the evening; Nyuto is about the water. The sign in each changing room tells you what you are in; see onsen water types for how to read it.

Which one to pick

• One night, no car, you want to walk between baths after dinner: Kinosaki, or Shibu. Both are on a train line with a short last leg, and both give overnight guests free use of the public baths.
• A day trip, no night: Kinosaki's one-day pass, Kurokawa's or Gero's tegata, Dōgo's three bathhouses, or Beppu's neighbourhood baths. Not Shibu, where day visitors get one bath, and not Nyuto's booklet. Our guide to onsen without staying the night covers how day bathing works in general.
• Free: Nozawa's thirteen baths and Kusatsu's few open public baths.
• The most varied water: Nyuto, with a night there, or Beppu over a couple of days.
• In winter: Nozawa and Zaō are ski towns too. In Zaō the town's three small public baths stay open but the big outdoor bath closes for the snow season.

How to pace it

• Three or four baths, not all of them. Sit out between baths, walk, and drink some water. Doing all seven in Kinosaki in one evening is a common mistake.
• Start inn baths early. Inns that take visitors generally do so from late morning to mid-afternoon, and some close a day a week. Public bathhouses usually stay open into the evening.
• Carry a small bag: a small towel, the pass, some coins and your phone. Small public baths often have no soap, no towel and sometimes no shower.
• Hot water adds up. Many hopping towns sit on very hot sources, and small public baths are often kept hotter than a city bathhouse. Keep each soak short. See how hot onsen water is and how long and how many times a day.
• Tattoos: the rule is set by each bath and each inn, not by the pass. See going to an onsen with tattoos.

When "day pass" means something else

Search for a town's "day pass" and you will also find passes that have nothing to do with bathing. The Hakone Free Pass covers trains, buses, the ropeway and the lake boat around Hakone, not baths. In Nozawa and Zaō, a day pass is usually a ski lift ticket. And "day pass" at an inn usually means 日帰り入浴 (higaeri nyūyoku), paying to use one inn's bath without staying.

Things not to do

Do not assume an inn on the pass list will let you in at four in the afternoon. Check the hours on the map you get with the pass.

Do not expect one town's key or pass to work in the next town, even next door. Shibu's key does not open the baths in the towns around it.

Do not treat a free village bath as somebody else's job to clean. People who live there use it every day; leave it as tidy as you found it.

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