Photo: Kei hashi · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Yutagawa Onsen
Yutagawa Onsen is a hot spring town in Yamagata, Japan. The water leaves the ground at 42.2°C, hot. It measures pH 8.6 — mildly alkaline, the slippery kind. Officially the water is classed as sulfate spring. Its sources put out around 900 litres a minute. 7 inns take visitors here. About 114,344 people a year come to bathe.
Getting there
- Train to Tsuruoka Station (JR)
- Local bus, about 25 min
The water here
Sulfate spring
Clear water with a faintly bitter taste. Known for holding heat.
Things to see nearby
Places from Wikidata, photographs from Wikimedia Commons. Distances are in a straight line from the town.
With tattoos
Many public baths still turn away visible tattoos, and the rule is set by each bath, not by the town. The reliable way round it is to bathe privately: a room with its own open-air bath, or an inn with a private bath you can book for yourselves.
Where to stay
Hot spring towns nearby
Similar water elsewhere
The numbers
- Water temperature
- 42.2°C
- pH
- 8.6 (mildly alkaline)
- Discharge
- 900 litres a minute
- Inns
- 7
- Visitors a year
- 114,344
- Address in Japanese
- 山形県鶴岡市
Figures from the town's Japanese Wikipedia article.
Where it is
38.6936, 139.7697 — open the map
Read more
Planning a first soak? Read how an onsen stay works, and what to do if you have tattoos.