Marukoma Onsen — photo: Soica2001 (talk) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Onsen near Japan's airports: what is really close to Haneda, Narita, Kansai, New Chitose, Fukuoka and Centrair
If you land late, leave early, or have a long gap between flights, the question is simple: where is the nearest hot-spring bath? The answer depends a great deal on the airport. Around New Chitose, Itami and Fukuoka there is naturally hot water within an hour. Around Haneda and Narita there is not, and what you find instead is a city bathhouse. This guide gives the straight-line distances from each airport to the onsen in our records, what the water there is recorded at, and, at the end, which airport to fly into for the famous onsen towns.
How we measured
Distances are straight lines from the airport to the centre of each onsen area in our records, so the journey is always longer. The temperature is the highest recorded at that onsen's sources. We use 42 °C as the line for "naturally hot": water below that is usually heated before it reaches the bath. That says nothing about whether a bath is pleasant, only about where the heat comes from. Some onsen have no temperature on record, and we say so where it matters.
Bath facilities inside terminals and the big day spas in cities are mostly not separate onsen areas, so they are not in these counts. Several airports have one; they are mentioned below where relevant.
Haneda (Tokyo): a city bathhouse, or an hour and more to real heat
There are 25 onsen within 50 km of Haneda in our records, and 22 of them have a recorded temperature. The highest is 38.3 °C, and 11 are below 25 °C. None reaches 42 °C. The closest is Tsunashima, 12.4 km away, at 18 °C. This is the Kanto plain: the water is drawn from deep wells, often dark brown, and heated.
That still makes a perfectly good bath before an early flight. The wards around the airport have public bathhouses on this kind of water, and there are bath facilities at and around the airport itself that are used for late arrivals and early departures. Treat them as a 銭湯 (sentō) or a day spa rather than an onsen town; see onsen vs sentō for the difference.
The nearest water recorded at 42 °C or more is Fujino, 57.1 km west, at 46.7 °C, then Hakkannon in Saitama, 60.7 km, at 57.3 °C. The first onsen town most visitors would recognise is Hakone, 73.7 km away, with Yugawara, 88 °C, at 78.0 km. Neither is an airport stop; they are a night of their own. See the Hakone guide and onsen from Tokyo.
Narita (Tokyo): the emptiest airport for onsen
Within 50 km of Narita there is one onsen in our records: Yasashigaura, on the Pacific coast 25.8 km away, at 21.7 °C. The nearest water at 42 °C or more is Hakkannon, 73.7 km away. Kinugawa is 131.5 km and Hakone 134 km.
So for a night before or after a Narita flight, a hotel near the airport with a large bath, or a city bathhouse in Tokyo on the way in, is the realistic choice. If you want an onsen town at the start of the trip, it is a train ride into Tokyo and out again; the three best onsen towns near Tokyo covers which ones are worth it.
Itami (Osaka): Arima is 17.5 km away
Osaka's domestic airport has the best onsen in this guide on its doorstep. Arima is 17.5 km away, with sources recorded up to 98 °C, and it is the most visited onsen page in the whole Kansai region in our records. It is in the hills behind Kobe, so the road or rail journey is longer than the distance, but it is a realistic first or last night. See the Arima guide.
Closer still are Takarazuka, 9.3 km, at 38.2 °C, and Minoh, 6.5 km, which has no temperature on record. Of the 30 onsen within 50 km, only three are recorded at 42 °C or more: Arima, Settsukyo (16.9 km, 42 °C) and Ushitaki (45.3 km, 52.3 °C).
Kansai International (Osaka): Ushitaki first, Arima second
Kansai Airport sits on an island in Osaka Bay, further from the hills. There are 17 onsen within 50 km, and two are recorded at 42 °C or more. The nearer is Ushitaki, 21.1 km inland, at 52.3 °C, a small place in a river valley reached by bus from Kishiwada on the Nankai line. The better known is Arima, 40.5 km away, which takes a change or two by train or a long bus ride.
Across the water, Sumoto on Awaji Island is 31.9 km away and recorded at 37 °C. If your trip continues to Kyoto, see onsen near Kyoto and Osaka, which compares how hot the water is around the two cities, and the three best onsen near Osaka and Kyoto.
New Chitose (Sapporo): a lake of hot water half an hour away
New Chitose is the best placed of the big international airports. There are 11 onsen within 50 km, three of them recorded at 42 °C or more, and all three are around Lake Shikotsu or the coast to its south:
- Marukoma, 31.2 km, recorded at 54 °C. A single inn on the lake shore, about 50 minutes by bus from JR Chitose Station.
- Shikotsuko-Itō, 31.0 km, 45.4 °C.
- Shiraoi, 35.6 km, 51 °C, near Shiraoi Station on the line toward Noboribetsu.
The lakeside village itself, Lake Shikotsu Onsen, is the closest at 23.6 km, with five lodgings, about 40 minutes by bus from Chitose Station; its recorded water is 33.2 °C. Jōzankei is 48.2 km and Noboribetsu, recorded at 90 °C with 14 inns, is 54.5 km, both closer to the airport than to many parts of Sapporo. There is also a bath facility inside the domestic terminal. See the Hokkaido guide, Noboribetsu and Jōzankei.
One more belongs on this list even though it is missing from the counts above, because we have no position on record for it: Naganuma Onsen ながぬま温泉, in the farming town of Naganuma north-east of the airport. It is not a town of inns but a single bathing facility with one lodging, and its source is recorded at 52 °C, a chloride spring, with a recorded flow of 1,900 litres a minute. Without a car, the recorded route is a JR Hokkaido bus from Kitahiroshima Station on the Chitose Line, about 40 minutes; travel listings put it at roughly half an hour by road from New Chitose, which makes it one of the easier hot baths to reach with a rental car on the first or last day. Listings describe an outdoor bath and a sauna. Check the opening hours, the last bus back, and the tattoo rule before you go; see onsen and tattoos.
Fukuoka: Futsukaichi is 11.9 km away
Fukuoka's airport is close to the city, and so is its nearest onsen. Futsukaichi, 11.9 km south, has seven lodgings and is about 10 minutes on foot from JR Futsukaichi Station. Its temperature is not in our records. There are 13 onsen within 50 km; the one recorded at 42 °C or more is Furuyu in Saga, 32.8 km, at 43 °C, with 13 lodgings, about 45 minutes by bus from Saga Station.
A little further, Takeo is 59.1 km away at 51 °C with 17 lodgings, and about 10 minutes on foot from Takeo-Onsen Station. The big Kyushu names are not airport stops: Kurokawa is 85.2 km and Beppu 103 km. See the three best onsen near Fukuoka and the Kyushu guide.
Chubu Centrair (Nagoya): warm water on the bay
There are 15 onsen within 50 km of Centrair, and four are recorded at 42 °C or more, all on the low ground around the head of Ise Bay: Kuwana (20.4 km, 48.7 °C), Tobishima (24.3 km, 46.8 °C), Owari (30.6 km, 50.3 °C) and Kaizu (37.7 km, 44 °C). On the Mikawa Bay coast to the east, Nishiura (35.0 km, seven lodgings) and Miya (41.6 km, nine lodgings) are inn towns by the sea. Gero, 84 °C, is 112.5 km away; Centrair is still its nearest airport. See the three best onsen near Nagoya and the Gero guide.
Flying straight to an onsen town
Many people searching for "the nearest airport" to a famous onsen are better off skipping the big airports altogether. These are the airports our town guides use, with the straight-line distance where we have it:
- Dōgo: Matsuyama Airport, about 8.5 km.
- Tamatsukuri: Izumo, 10.8 km, or Yonago, 22.2 km.
- Ginzan: Yamagata Airport, 22 km.
- Beppu: Ōita Airport, 31.2 km across the bay; Yufuin: the same airport, 41.6 km.
- Yunomine and Shirahama: Nanki-Shirahama Airport, with flights from Haneda; Yunomine is 40.8 km from it.
- Nyūtō: Hanamaki, 51.3 km, or Akita, 52.2 km.
- Naruko: Sendai Airport, 69.3 km, which has international flights.
- Yunokawa: on the edge of Hakodate, close to Hakodate Airport.
- Kinosaki: Tajima Airport, with flights from Itami and a bus of about 40 minutes.
- Kurokawa: Kumamoto Airport is on some of the bus routes.
- Unzen: Nagasaki Airport, about 100 minutes by bus.
- Ibusuki: Kagoshima Airport, about 1 hour 35 minutes by direct bus.
Domestic flights and airport buses run on timetables that change by season, and some buses run only a few times a day. Check the current times before you build a plan around one.
Planning a first or last night
- Landing late. Ryokan dinners are served at set times and a late check-in often means no dinner; see ryokan meals. For a late arrival, a room-only stay or a city hotel with a bath is simpler, with the onsen town the next day.
- Leaving early. An inn's shared bath often opens again early in the morning; see when to soak and how long. Work back from your check-in time at the airport, not from the flight.
- A long layover. Leaving the airport means immigration and customs both ways. A bath facility at or near the terminal is the only option that fits most gaps; an onsen town fits only if you have most of a day. See onsen without staying the night.
First onsen trip? Start with planning your first onsen trip and onsen etiquette. Without a car? See onsen without a car. On a JR Pass? See onsen on the JR Pass.