Shibu Onsen — photo: 663highland · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Shibu onsen: the nine public baths, the key, the snow monkeys, and getting there
Shibu is the town people mean when they picture a Japanese hot spring lane: a narrow, stone-paved street of tall wooden inns, small bathhouses with numbered signs, and guests walking between them in yukata after dark. It is in a valley in northern Nagano, a short ride from the snow monkeys. Most guides list the nine public baths and what each is said to be good for. This one is about what they leave out: how hot the water in this valley actually is, how the baths and the key really work, how Shibu differs from the eight other towns around it, and how to get there without a car.
What the numbers say
Shibu is one of nine small towns in one valley, together called the 湯田中渋温泉郷 (Yudanaka-Shibu onsen-kyō): Yudanaka, Shin-Yudanaka, Hoshikawa, Honami, Andai, Shibu, Kakuma, Kanbayashi and Jigokudani. Six of the nine have a source temperature in our records, and every one of the six is above 60 °C:
- Kakuma, 0.8 km from Shibu, is recorded at 98 °C, and Andai and Honami at 97 °C.
- Of the 1,167 towns in our database with a temperature on record, only 26 reach 97 °C. Three of those 26 are in this one valley.
- Nagano has 101 hot spring towns in our records. Six of them reach 90 °C, and half of those six are here.
Shibu itself has no temperature on record with us. It is listed on chloride water, and the valley as a whole on chloride, sulfate and sulfur sources. In practice this means water that comes out of the ground far too hot to bathe in and is cooled, not heated, before it reaches you. That matters in the public baths, below. For how to read the water sign in the changing room, see reading the water sign.
The nine public baths and the key
Shibu's nine public baths, the 外湯 (soto-yu), are numbered one to nine and spread along the main lane and its side alleys. They are run by the town's inns and residents, not as commercial bathhouses, and each is small: a changing area and a single tub, sometimes room for only a few people. They are fed from different sources, so the colour and feel of the water change a little from one to the next.
The doors are locked. If you stay the night at an inn in Shibu, the inn lends you a key that opens all nine, and bathing in them costs nothing extra. Day visitors usually get only the ninth and largest, 大湯 (Ō-yu), during set daytime hours for a small fee. Check at the information centre on the day, because the arrangement can change. In practice, the nine baths are a reason to stay the night, not a day-trip activity.
The tradition is to visit all nine, stamping a hand towel sold in the town at each one, and to finish with a visit to the small temple, Takayakushi, at the top of the lane. You do not need to do all nine in one evening. Many guests do three or four after dinner and the rest the next morning.
Lists online give each bath a different ailment it is meant to help. We do not repeat those; there is no need to choose a bath for that reason. Choose by how crowded it is and how hot the tub is when you open the door. The general rules are in our etiquette guide.
The water is hot
Because the sources are so hot, the tubs in the 外湯 are often hotter than in a city bathhouse, and the water can be close to 50 °C near the inlet. There is a cold tap to cool it. The custom is to ask anyone already in the bath before you turn it on, and to turn it off again when you leave. If you are alone and it is too hot, add cold water slowly and stir; do not just sit at the far end and hope.
Get in slowly, keep the first soak short, and drink water between baths. Nine small hot baths in an evening is a lot. If you are travelling with children, see onsen with kids: the hottest tubs are not a good first bath for a child.
The snow monkeys
The monkey park is at Jigokudani, 2.6 km in a straight line east of Shibu. Jigokudani is a single inn at the end of a 30-minute forest path, on a source recorded at 62 to 76 °C. Most people take a local bus or taxi from Yudanaka or Shibu to the trailhead on the Kanbayashi side and walk in. The monkeys come down to the warm pool most reliably in the coldest months, roughly December to March, when the path is packed snow: wear shoes with grip.
The pool is for the monkeys. You watch from the edge; you do not bathe with them, touch them or feed them, and you keep food out of sight on the path. The park is busiest from late morning; going early, from a night in Shibu, is the easiest way to see it before the tour groups arrive. For more on winter bathing, see when to go.
Shibu, Yudanaka or Kanbayashi?
All nine towns share one valley and one station, so the choice is about what you want outside the inn.
- Shibu, with 35 inns in our records, is the one with the stone lane, the wooden buildings and the nine public baths. Choose it if you want to walk between baths in the evening.
- Yudanaka, 1.3 km northwest of Shibu, is around the station at the end of the line. It is flatter and more practical, with chloride and sulfur sources on record. Choose it if you want the shortest walk with luggage, and walk or ride up to Shibu for the evening.
- Kanbayashi, recorded at 68 °C, is the closest town to the monkey park trailhead, with larger hotels among the trees. Choose it if the monkeys are the main reason for the trip.
Shibu's bath key does not open public baths in the other towns, and theirs do not open Shibu's.
Getting there
Shibu is 24 km in a straight line from Nagano Station. There is no JR line into the valley; the last part is on the private Nagano Electric Railway.
- From Tokyo. Take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano. Change to the Nagano Electric Railway (Nagaden) for 湯田中 (Yudanaka), the end of the line, about 45 minutes on the limited express. From Yudanaka, a local bus to Shibu takes about 5 minutes, or it is a walk of around 20 to 30 minutes, uphill. Many inns will collect you from the station if you ask when you book. Allow about two and a half hours in all.
- From Nagano. The same train from Nagano Station. Some buses also run from Nagano Station into the valley and towards the monkey park; check the current timetable.
- From Kyoto or Osaka. Take the Shinkansen to Tokyo and come up the Hokuriku line, or go to Kanazawa and come down the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano. Either way it is most of a day; do not plan it as a short hop.
The JR Pass covers the Shinkansen to Nagano but not the Nagano Electric Railway or the local buses. Pay for the last leg separately; it is not expensive. A car is not needed for the towns or the monkey park.
Nearby: Nozawa, Shiga Kogen and Kusatsu
Nozawa is 21 km north of Shibu, with its own thirteen free public baths on sulfur water, but the two are not linked by rail; allow half a day between them. Buses run up from Yudanaka to the Shiga Kogen ski area above the valley, where Hoppo sits on a sulfur source at 50 °C.
Kusatsu is only 19 km away in a straight line, over the Shibu pass. The road is closed in the snow season, roughly November to April. In winter, going between them means a long detour by rail through Nagano and Takasaki or Karuizawa. Do not plan Shibu and Kusatsu as neighbours in winter.
When to go
Winter is the famous season: snow on the lane, the monkeys at the pool, and the public baths at their best on a cold night. It is also the busiest, and the weekends from late December to February fill early. Spring and autumn are quieter, and the lane is pleasant in the evening in any season. In early summer the river below the town is known for fireflies. Weekends and Japanese holidays are busy all year. See when to go.
Shibu or Ginzan?
These two come up together because both are old streets of wooden inns that look best at night. Ginzan, in Yamagata, is smaller, more remote and more photographed, with fewer baths to walk between, and in winter non-guests need a ticket to enter in the evening. Shibu is larger, easier to reach from Tokyo, and has the nine baths and the monkeys. If you want to bathe your way around a town, Shibu; if you want the street in the snow above all, Ginzan.
Things not to do
Do not plan the nine public baths as a day trip. Without a night at an inn, you get one of them.
Do not open the cold tap without asking anyone already in the bath, and do not leave it running.
Do not step into the monkeys' pool, touch or feed the monkeys, or carry food in the open on the path.
Do not drive the Shibu pass to Kusatsu in winter, or trust a navigation app that says it is open.
Do not assume tattoos are fine. Policies vary by bath and inn. See going to an onsen with tattoos, or book an inn with a private bath.
New to this? Start with how an onsen stay actually works and onsen etiquette. For the wider region, see our Japanese Alps onsen guide and Nozawa guide. For the other famous old lanes, see Ginzan and Kinosaki.