Photo: Yobito KAYANUMA · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Nakanosawa Onsen
Nakanosawa Onsen is a hot spring town in Fukushima, Japan. The water leaves the ground at 68.3°C, hot. It measures pH 2.1 — strongly acidic, the kind that stings on a cut. Officially the water is classed as chloride spring, sulfate spring and sulfur spring. Its sources put out around 14,200 litres a minute. 11 inns take visitors here. About 150,000 people a year come to bathe.
Getting there
- Train to Inawashiro Station (JR)
- Local bus, about 30 min
The water here
Chloride spring
Salty water. The salt leaves a thin film on the skin, so you stay warm well after leaving the bath.
Sulfate spring
Clear water with a faintly bitter taste. Known for holding heat.
Sulfur spring
The classic rotten-egg smell and milky white water. It can tarnish silver jewellery, so take it off.
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
- 68.3°C
- pH
- 2.1 (strongly acidic)
- Discharge
- 14,200 litres a minute
- Inns
- 11
- Visitors a year
- 150,000
- Address in Japanese
- 福島県耶麻郡猪苗代町
Figures from the town's Japanese Wikipedia article.
Where it is
37.6146, 140.2116 — open the map
Read more
Planning a first soak? Read how an onsen stay works, and what to do if you have tattoos.