Arashiyama Onsen — photo: ajari from Japan · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Onsen in Kyoto and Osaka: is there hot spring water inside the cities?
Search for an onsen in Kyoto or Osaka and you get hotel baths, big day spas and a few valley inns, all mixed together. Some sit on a spring, some on a deep well, and some are an hour away by bus. The short answer: Kyoto City does have onsen, on the edges of the city in Arashiyama, Kurama and Ōhara, but the water is cool and heated. Osaka City has no onsen town in our records at all; the nearest are in the hills around it. And only two places within 30 km of either main station have water hot enough to fill a bath on its own. This guide goes through them with the numbers.
The short answer, in numbers
Our records hold 1,538 onsen across Japan. Kyoto Prefecture has 19 of them and Osaka Prefecture 13. Four are inside Kyoto City. None is inside Osaka City.
Measured in a straight line from Kyoto Station or Osaka Station, 18 onsen lie within 30 km of one or the other. Sixteen have a recorded source temperature, and only two reach 42 °C, roughly the point at which a bath can run without a boiler: Settsukyō in Takatsuki, at exactly 42.0 °C, and Arima above Kobe, at up to 98 °C. Kyoto Prefecture's three hot springs over 42 °C are all on the Tango coast of the Sea of Japan, more than 100 km from Kyoto Station.
So the useful question is not "is there an onsen in Kyoto" but "do I want a bath close to where I am sightseeing, or hot water at the source". Both are possible. They are usually not the same place.
Kyoto City: four onsen on the edges
All four are on the western and northern rim of the city, where the basin meets the hills. None is downtown.
- Arashiyama Onsen, 7.7 km from Kyoto Station, is recorded at 35.2 °C and 81 L per minute, a weakly alkaline simple spring. It is used by inns and hotels in the area, so in practice you bathe in it mostly as a guest at one of them. Arashiyama has JR, Hankyu and Keifuku stations, which makes it the easiest onsen to combine with a day of sightseeing.
- Kyōto Takenosato Onsen, 7.9 km away in the bamboo hills of Ōharano in Nishikyō Ward, is the warmest in the city at 41.5 °C, pH 8.04, 137 L per minute, simple and bicarbonate. It is off the rail lines, so plan on a bus or taxi.
- Kurama Onsen, 14.9 km north, is the coolest: 15 °C, pH 7.6, a sulfur spring, heated for the bath. It sits in a forested valley at the end of the Eizan Railway's Kurama line; the record gives a three-minute shuttle bus from Kurama Station. Many people walk the trail over the ridge from Kibune and Kurama-dera and finish here. Heavy rain and snow can close the valley road and line, so check before a typhoon or snow day.
- Ōhara Onsen, 16.4 km north-east, is recorded at 27.9 °C, pH 8.7, 119 L per minute, among farmhouses and the temples of Sanzen-in. The record gives Kyoto Bus routes 17 and 18 from Kyoto Station, about an hour to the Ōhara terminus, then a 15-minute walk.
Just outside the city are two more that work as half-day trips. Yunohana Onsen in Kameoka, 22.8 km out, is 29.2 °C, about 20 minutes by bus from JR Kameoka Station, the town where the Hozu river boat ride down to Arashiyama starts. Ogoto Onsen on Lake Biwa, 16.8 km away in Shiga, is 30 °C at pH 8.58 with nine inns.
Osaka: nothing in the city, a ring in the hills
No onsen in our records is inside Osaka City. The nearest to Osaka Station is 14.6 km away, and the closest ones sit where the plain meets the mountains on the north and east side.
- Ishikiri Onsen, 14.6 km east in Higashiōsaka at the foot of Mt Ikoma, is 17.5 °C, pH 7.2, with one inn on record, about five minutes on foot from Ishikiri Station on the Kintetsu Nara line.
- Minoh Onsen, 15.4 km north, is recorded as a chloride and bicarbonate spring with no temperature on record. It is beside the walking trail up to Minoh Falls, about five minutes from Hankyu Minoh Station, and reached by a free elevator up the hillside.
- Fushio Onsen, 17.9 km north in Ikeda, is 27 °C, pH 8.4, one inn, reached by Hankyu bus.
- Settsukyō, 20.8 km north-east in a gorge above Takatsuki, is recorded at 21 to 42 °C, bicarbonate, by city bus from JR Takatsuki Station. It is the only spring in Osaka Prefecture within 30 km of Osaka Station that reaches 42 °C.
Further out, Ushitaki Onsen in the Izumi mountains is Osaka Prefecture's hottest record at 52.3 °C, 36.5 km from Osaka Station by bus from Kishiwada.
Inside the city, several big spa complexes and business hotels advertise 天然温泉 (tennen onsen), natural hot spring water, from wells they drilled themselves. That is legitimate, but it is not in our records, and it is not a spring town. Look for the spring analysis board near the changing room to see what you are getting; how to read it is in onsen vs sento.
The hot one in the middle: Arima
If you want water that is hot at the source without a long journey, the answer from both cities is the same. Arima Onsen is 25.1 km from Osaka Station and 51.1 km from Kyoto Station, in Kobe's northern hills, recorded at 40 to 98 °C with chloride, bicarbonate, iron and radioactive springs. It is technically inside Kobe City, not Osaka, which is why it does not show up when you look for "onsen in Osaka" on a map, and it is the reason most "best onsen in Osaka" lists end there.
Plan it as its own half day. The crossing over Mt Rokkō takes longer than the distance suggests, and onsen from Kyoto and Osaka has the routes.
Which one, for the time you have
- An evening in the city: stay in Arashiyama on Arashiyama Onsen, or use a hotel or spa with its own well. Expect heated, often recirculated water.
- Half a day from Kyoto: Kurama after the Kibune trail, or Ōhara after the temples. You are paying for the valley, not the water temperature.
- Half a day from Osaka: Minoh with the falls walk, or Arima for hot water.
- A night or two: leave the cities. The three best onsen towns near Osaka and Kyoto compares Arima, Kinosaki and the Wakayama coast, and Shirahama has its own guide.
Things to know before you go
Hotel baths are usually for guests only, and some sell day tickets at fixed hours. Valley inns at Kurama and Ōhara often offer a day bath, sometimes as a package with lunch; check the hours, which can end in the late afternoon.
Tattoo rules vary from one place to the next, and large city spas are often the strictest. See going to an onsen with tattoos, and check with each place.
The rules are the same in a city spa as in a mountain inn: wash before you get in, keep the towel out of the water, and keep your voice down. Onsen etiquette has the full list.
For the Tokyo version of this question, see onsen in Tokyo. For a bath without staying the night, see onsen day trips; if you fly in or out of Kansai, onsen near Japan's airports covers Itami and Kansai International.