Photo: 663highland · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Tsukioka Onsen
Tsukioka Onsen is a hot spring town in Niigata, Japan. The water leaves the ground at 50°C, hot. It measures pH 8 — mildly alkaline, the slippery kind. Officially the water is classed as chloride spring, sulfate spring and sulfur spring. Its sources put out around 1,062 litres a minute. 15 inns take visitors here with room for about 3,721 guests. About 259,348 people a year come to bathe.
Getting there
- Train to Tsukioka Station (JR)
- Many inns send a car to the station — ask when you book
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.
More photographs
From Wikimedia Commons. Tap a photo for the photographer and licence.
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
- 50°C
- pH
- 8 (mildly alkaline)
- Discharge
- 1,062 litres a minute
- Inns
- 15
- Guest capacity
- 3,721
- Visitors a year
- 259,348
- Address in Japanese
- 新潟県新発田市月岡温泉
Figures from the town's Japanese Wikipedia article.
Where it is
37.8803, 139.3092 — open the map
Read more
Planning a first soak? Read how an onsen stay works, and what to do if you have tattoos.