Inamuragasaki Onsen
Onsen in Kamakura and Enoshima: where to bathe, and where the hot water is
Kamakura is one of the most visited day trips from Tokyo, and after a day of temples, the Great Buddha and the beach at Enoshima, a hot bath is an obvious idea. There are baths. But Kamakura is not an onsen town, and the water near it is cool at the source and heated. The hot springs that run hot by themselves start about 45 km away, at Hakone and Yugawara. This guide sets out what is where, with the numbers, so you can decide whether to bathe in Kamakura or keep going.
The short answer, in numbers
Our records hold 1,538 onsen across Japan, 35 of them in Kanagawa Prefecture. Only one has an address in Kamakura City: Inamuragasaki Onsen (稲村ヶ崎温泉), on the coast between Hase and Shichirigahama. It is recorded at 18 °C and pH 8.7, a bicarbonate spring. At 18 °C the water has to be heated before anyone can bathe in it.
The other one visitors meet is Enoshima Onsen (江の島温泉) in Fujisawa, next door, recorded at 34 °C as a chloride (salty) spring. Warmer, but still below body temperature.
Measured in a straight line from Kamakura Station, six onsen in our data with coordinates lie within 20 km, mostly on the Miura Peninsula to the south. Their recorded source temperatures run from 14 to 36.2 °C. None reaches 42 °C, roughly the point at which a bath can run without a boiler. The first onsen recorded that hot are Fujino, 46.5 km north in the hills of Sagamihara (46.7 °C), and Yugawara, 47.3 km south-west on the coast (30 to 88 °C). Hakone is in the same band, 45.5 km away.
In Kamakura: Inamuragasaki, on the Enoden line
Inamuragasaki Onsen is a single day-bathing facility, not a village of inns. Get off the Enoshima Electric Railway (the Enoden) at Inamuragasaki Station; Japanese guides put it about three minutes' walk away. Our records put Hase-dera Temple 1.3 km away in a straight line, the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in 1.8 km and Shichirigahama beach 1.4 km, so it fits on the end of the usual Hase walk before you ride the Enoden on to Enoshima or back to Kamakura.
Two things to know. First, Japanese listings say it does not admit children; the age limit differs between sources, so check before you take a family. Second, the water is heated, as it must be at 18 °C. That does not make it fake. It is spring water with its own chemistry, and bicarbonate water tends to feel smooth. It just is not a hot spring in the sense of water that comes out of the ground ready to bathe in.
On Enoshima: a spa on a deep well
The bath at the entrance to Enoshima is a large spa complex, Enoshima Island Spa, a few minutes' walk across the bridge. Our record for Enoshima Onsen gives the same route: about ten minutes on foot from Katase-Enoshima Station on the Odakyu line. Its own site says the water comes from 1,500 m underground. Our record has it at 34 °C, salty, and classed as hypertonic, meaning more dissolved minerals than average.
It is a different kind of place from Inamuragasaki. There are pools as well as separate men's and women's baths, and the pools are the part you visit in swimwear; the baths are the usual nude ones. See can you wear a swimsuit in an onsen for why. The facility says preschool children cannot use the baths or pools, and that elementary-school children must come with an adult of the same sex. It is priced as a resort spa, well above a neighbourhood bath, and prices and hours change by season, so look at the current ones on its site before you go.
Searches for "Enoshima onsen tattoo friendly" are common. The facility's main pages say nothing either way, and we have no data on tattoo rules, so ask before you go. Our tattoo guide explains how to read the notices in Japanese.
About an hour away: Hakone and Yugawara
If what you want is water that is hot from the ground, the answer from Kamakura is west, along the coast.
- Yugawara is the simplest. It is on the JR line the whole way: the Yokosuka Line from Kamakura to Ōfuna, then the Tōkaidō Line through Fujisawa and Odawara to Yugawara Station, with no private railway in between, so the JR Pass covers it. Our record puts the water at 30 to 88 °C, chloride and sulfate. From the station our travel data says about five minutes by taxi to the inns.
- Hakone is the famous one, and the bigger trip. Take JR to Odawara, then the Hakone Tozan line to Hakone-Yumoto, where the day baths start near the station. Hakone is a group of villages with different water at different heights; our Hakone guide explains which is which, and the higher villages such as Ubako (44 to 63 °C) are a further climb by train or bus.
Either works as a night after a day in Kamakura, or as the next stop on a route west towards Mt. Fuji or Kyoto. Both are also easy to reach straight from Tokyo, so if you are choosing a single bath day, our three best onsen near Tokyo compares the options.
Closer, but still cool: the Miura Peninsula and the Odakyu line
A few other onsen in our records are nearer than Hakone. They are worth knowing about if you are already going that way, not as a reason to go.
- Miura Mahoroba Onsen, 17.4 km south, about five minutes' walk from Miurakaigan Station on the Keikyū line, is the warmest of the six near Kamakura: 36.2 °C, chloride, with one inn. Aburatsubo, near Misaki at the tip of the peninsula, is 32.2 °C. The Keikyū line runs from Yokohama, so these suit a Miura day more than a Kamakura one.
- Tsurumaki, 25.9 km north-west, is right outside the north exit of Tsurumaki-Onsen Station on the Odakyu Odawara line, recorded at 26.3 to 37.3 °C with three inns. From Enoshima, the Odakyu Enoshima line connects to it at Sagami-Ōno.
Which one, for the time you have
- An hour after the Hase walk: Inamuragasaki, three minutes from the Enoden station, adults only.
- An afternoon by the sea, with pools: Enoshima Island Spa, with swimwear for the pools.
- Hot water, JR Pass, little planning: Yugawara, on the Tōkaidō Line.
- A night in an onsen village: Hakone, via Odawara.
- A private bath: we have no data on private baths in Kamakura. Our private onsen guide explains what to look for, and Hakone and Yugawara have far more inns to choose from.
Searching "Kamakura onsen"? Three other things it can mean
The phrase points to more than one place, and search results mix them up. Here is how to tell which one you want.
- Kamakura Onsen in Miyagi. A different town with the same name, Kamakura Onsen (鎌倉温泉), in the Zaō area of Miyagi Prefecture, about 330 km north of Kamakura City in a straight line. Our record gives 23.8 °C, pH 9.4, a simple spring, about 30 minutes by car from Shiroishi Station on the Tōhoku Line. If an inn listing for "Kamakura Onsen" shows an address in Katta District, Miyagi, this is the one.
- Kamakura snow huts at Yunishigawa. In Japanese, kamakura is also the word for a small hut built of snow. Yunishigawa Onsen in the mountains of Nikkō, Tochigi, holds a winter festival of lit snow huts. Our record gives a source at 25 °C and about 30 minutes by bus from Yunishigawa-Onsen Station.
- Kamakura snow huts at Onogawa. Onogawa Onsen near Yonezawa, Yamagata, also lines its streets with snow huts in winter. Our record gives sources from 5 to 80 °C and about 30 minutes by bus from JR Yonezawa Station.
Festival dates change each year, so check the town's own listing before you plan around one. If you meant the city by the sea south of Tokyo, everything above this section is about it.
Things to know before you go
Kamakura is busy, and the Enoden is slow and crowded at weekends. If you plan a bath at the end of the day, leave time: at both baths, listings put the last entry an hour before closing.
Travel times here are rough estimates, not a timetable. Check opening days and prices on each facility's own site, as Japanese listings for Inamuragasaki do not agree on its closing day.
The rules are the same in a seaside spa as in a mountain inn: wash first, keep the towel out of the water, no swimming. Onsen etiquette has the full list, and onsen vs sento explains how to read the spring board to see whether the water is heated or recirculated.
For the same question in other cities, see onsen in Tokyo, onsen in Kyoto and Osaka, onsen in Nagoya and onsen in Takayama. For a bath without staying the night, see onsen day trips, and for the whole list near the capital, see onsen near Tokyo.