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Shuzenji Onsen — photo: 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Shuzenji onsen: Hakoyu, Tokko-no-yu, the bamboo path, a day trip, and Shuzenji or Hakone

Shuzenji is a small onsen town in a river valley in the middle of the Izu Peninsula, grown up around a temple more than a thousand years old. It has no sea and no tower hotels on the main street: a fast river, red bridges, a short bamboo path and a cluster of traditional inns. Most guides list the inns. This one puts Shuzenji in numbers, explains the train and bus, shows how a day visit works without staying the night, covers the quieter springs further up the valley, and helps you choose between Shuzenji and Hakone.

What the numbers say

• Shuzenji Onsen's Wikipedia article is read 766 times in our sample, third of the 48 onsen places in Shizuoka in our records and 74th of 1,538 in Japan. The two above it in Shizuoka are Atami (1,275) and Yugashima (1,169), which is 8.6 km up the same valley.
• The water is a simple spring, recorded at 65 °C, with the town's sources putting out about 600 litres a minute. Simple water is clear, mild and low in minerals. It is the most common type in our records, at 341 of the 1,468 onsen places with a water type. There is no sulfur, so no egg smell.
• Our records have no pH and no count of inns for Shuzenji, so we do not give them.
• Six other onsen places in our data are within about 9 km: Ōhito (3.3 km), Shiraiwa (5.6 km), Funabara (6.6 km), Izu-Nagaoka (7.2 km), Yoshina (7.4 km) and Yugashima (8.6 km), all distances in a straight line from the town.

Shuzenji the town, Shuzen-ji the temple

The name is spelled two ways in Japanese, and you will see both. The town and the onsen are 修善寺. The temple at its centre, which the town grew up around, is 修禅寺, with a different second character, though it is pronounced the same. Tradition says the temple was founded in the early ninth century by the monk Kūkai, the same figure the town's founding spring legend is told about. The temple grounds are a few minutes' walk from the bus stop and are free to walk around.

The station is also called Shuzenji, but it is not in the old town. It sits a few kilometres down the valley, and the onsen is a bus ride on.

Getting there

Our travel data puts Shuzenji about 2 hours from Tokyo and about 3 hours from Kyoto or Osaka, with no car needed. The last railway is not JR.

• From Tokyo, via Mishima. Take the Tōkaidō Shinkansen to Mishima (Kodama and some Hikari trains stop there), then the Izuhakone Railway's Sunzu Line to its last stop, Shuzenji Station, about 35 minutes. The JR Pass covers the Shinkansen to Mishima only; pay the Izuhakone fare from there.
• From Tokyo, direct. Some JR Odoriko limited expresses run all the way from Tokyo to Shuzenji without a change. They are slower than the Shinkansen route and run only a few times a day. With a JR Pass, you still pay for the part beyond Mishima.
• From Kyoto or Osaka. Take the Shinkansen east to Mishima and change to the Izuhakone Railway there. Nozomi trains do not stop at Mishima.
• Station to the onsen. Local buses leave from in front of Shuzenji Station for the 修善寺温泉 stop in the old town, about 8 minutes in our records. Taxis wait at the station too.

Times here are rough; check the current timetable before you go. For other trips, see onsen trips from Tokyo and the 3 best onsen towns in Izu.

A day trip: where to bathe without staying

Shuzenji works as a day trip from Tokyo if you start early, but it is a town of inns, and most of its baths are inside them. For a day visit there are three kinds of choice.

• Hakoyu. 筥湯 (Hakoyu) is a small public bath in the centre of the old town, built in an old style with a wooden tower beside it. It is the easy choice for a first visit without a booking. It is simple and small, so bring a towel and do not count on shampoo. It closes in the evening and on some days; check before you go.
• Inn day bathing. Some inns sell a bath ticket to non-guests in the middle of the day. Look for 日帰り入浴 (higaeri nyūyoku, day bathing) on the inn's own site. Hours are usually limited to the gap between check-out and check-in, and some inns stop day guests at weekends.
• A private bath. Some inns rent a private bath for a set time, or include one with a room. This is also the reliable route if you have tattoos: the rule is set by each bath, not by the town. See private baths and going to an onsen with tattoos.

Prices and hours change, so we do not list them. Check on the day. If this is your first time, the basics guide explains how a day bath works.

Tokko-no-yu and the walk along the river

The old town follows the Katsura River for a few hundred metres, and most of what there is to see is on a short walk along it.

• Tokko-no-yu. 独鈷の湯 is a rock pool with a roof in the middle of the river, the spring in the town's founding legend: the story is that Kūkai struck the rock and hot water came out. It is the symbol of Shuzenji, and it is for looking at, not bathing in. Do not get in, and follow the signs on whether you may touch the water.
• The bamboo path. 竹林の小径 (chikurin no komichi) is a short paved path through a bamboo grove on the river bank. Visitors compare it with the bamboo at Arashiyama in Kyoto; it is much shorter and much quieter. It takes a few minutes to walk.
• The red bridges. Several small red-painted bridges cross the river between the two banks, so you can walk up one side and back down the other.

With the temple, the whole loop is an hour or two at an easy pace. Add a bath and a meal and it fills a day.

Further up the valley: Yugashima, Yoshina and Funabara

South of Shuzenji the road climbs towards the Amagi mountains, past smaller onsen places that see fewer visitors. Our records have more numbers for some of them than for Shuzenji itself.

• Yugashima, 8.6 km south, is about 30 minutes by bus from Shuzenji Station. The water is sulfate, recorded at 45 to 50 °C. Its Wikipedia article is read 1,169 times in our sample, 44th in Japan and well ahead of Shuzenji, largely because it is the setting of Kawabata Yasunari's story The Izu Dancer.
• Yoshina, 7.4 km south, is reached on the same bus line, at the 吉奈温泉 stop. Simple spring water at 44 to 55 °C, pH 9.09 (alkaline), about 500 litres a minute.
• Funabara, 6.6 km south-west, has simple spring water recorded at 32 to 90 °C, the hottest source in this valley in our records.

Buses up the valley are not frequent, so check the return time before you get off. Down the line towards Mishima, Izu-Nagaoka is the other inland onsen town with a station on the Izuhakone Railway; the Izu guide compares it with Shuzenji and Atami.

Shuzenji or Hakone?

Both are about two hours or less from Tokyo, in the hills, with traditional inns. They are 32.5 km apart in a straight line, but there is no quick link between them by public transport. Choose one.

• Shuzenji is one small town on one river. Everything is in walking distance of the bus stop, the water is mild simple spring, and it goes quiet early in the evening. Pick it for a slow night in an inn and a walk, without a sightseeing loop.
• Hakone is a set of villages spread along a valley, with volcanic steam vents, a lake, a ropeway and a pass that covers it all. Some of its water is sulfur. Its Wikipedia article is read 1,184 times in our sample, 43rd in Japan. Pick it for a day of moving around and the classic volcanic onsen look, and expect more people.

When to go

Shuzenji is busiest at weekends and in the autumn colours, which usually turn from mid-November into early December around the river and in the maple grove of Shuzenji Nature Park east of the town. In late winter the plum grove in the same park flowers. Midweek outside autumn is the quietest. Our seasons guide compares the year across Japan.

Things not to do

Do not get off the train expecting to be in the onsen town; take the bus from Shuzenji Station.

Do not climb into Tokko-no-yu; it is for looking at.

Do not assume an inn takes day guests at the weekend; check first.

Do not plan to see Shuzenji and Hakone in the same day.

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