Onsen and hot springs

For bathing in onsen, baths fed by a natural hot spring, the Umika selection covers four regions: Hakone, in the mountains about 80 minutes from Tokyo, the hot spring villages of Kaga south of Kanazawa, Okuhida in the Japanese Alps, and Miyajima, on the Seto Inland Sea. You stay in a ryokan, the traditional Japanese inn where dinner and the night are part of the stay, and several of them give each room its own rotemburo, an open-air bath. The bathing routine itself is set out in our guide to onsen etiquette; this page helps you choose where and how to bathe.

Four hot spring regions

Hakone is climbed by mountain railway, and the three ryokans in our selection sit at three stages of the valley. KAI Hakone, at the bottom in Hakone-Yumoto, has public baths lined with hinoki, Japanese cypress, each with a semi-open bath to the outside. Hakone Ginyu, in Miyanoshita at about 420 m, has two infinity public baths facing the Hakone mountains. Gora Kadan, in Gora, draws slightly alkaline water from private springs on its estate, flowing straight from the source.

Yamashiro Onsen, in Kaga, is 15 minutes from Kanazawa on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, the bullet train, to Kaga-Onsen Station. The village is built around the Ko-Sōyu, a replica of a Meiji-era (1868-1912) bathhouse tiled with Kutani porcelain, the painted ceramics of the region, and with no showers.

Okuhida Onsen-gō brings together five hot spring villages at the foot of the Northern Alps, among them Hirayu, Shinhotaka and Tochio. According to its tourist office, the springs deliver 37,000 litres a minute, the third-largest flow in Japan, and the area has one of the country's largest numbers of open-air baths. KAI Okuhida is in Hirayu, at about 1,200 m. Lower down, south of Takayama, Wanosato has its own spring, Hida Kuraiyama Onsen, rising on the estate.

Miyajima has few hot springs. Iwasō, on the island, has one of its own, the Wakamiya onsen, a simple, weakly radioactive spring. Across the water in Miyajimaguchi, the top-floor open-air bath at KAI Miyajima is designed to seem to run on into the sea, facing the island.

Public bath, private bath or a bath in your room

The large public bath, the daiyokujo, is separated by sex and taken naked. To bathe as a couple, as a family or without sharing the water, there are two options: a room with its own bath, or a kashikiriburo, a private bath booked for a set time.

In some ryokans the two public baths swap sides during the night: at 10 pm at Hakone Ginyu, at 3 am at Gora Kadan.

Onsen in the city, in Tokyo and Kyoto

A city stay can already begin with a hot spring bath. Hoshinoya Tokyo, in Otemachi, draws salty water from 1,500 m underground up to its 17th floor, into an indoor bath and an open-air bath open from 3 pm to 11.30 am the next day. In Kyoto, the spa at Aman Kyoto has onsen baths fed by a spring next to the estate, included in every stay, and Capella Kyoto has three private onsen rooms in its spa.

With a tattoo

Some onsen turn away tattooed bathers, and more and more accept them. JNTO (the Japan National Tourism Organization) advises checking the establishment's rule in advance, choosing a tattoo-friendly place or booking a private bath; cover patches only work for very small tattoos. The simplest answer is a room with its own bath: at Beniya Mukayu and Hakone Ginyu, every room has one. On board guntû, the floating hotel of the Inland Sea, the public baths and saunas are closed to tattooed guests, who use the bath in their suite. We check each inn's rule before booking.

Bathing seasons

Winter is the season for bathing outdoors in cold air. According to the 1991-2020 normals of the Japan Meteorological Agency, the average January high is 3.2 °C in Takayama and 7.8 °C in Gotemba, at the foot of the Hakone mountains. Snow tyres are needed to drive to Wanosato, and 1.5 m icicles hang from the roof above its Hida suite. Winter is also snow crab season in Kaga, served as sashimi at Beniya Mukayu from 7 November to 20 March, and Miyajima oyster season at Iwasō's table.

In Hakone, winter is also when the ropeway is maintained: the Owakudani-Sounzan section is closed from 7 to 24 December 2026, and the Togendai-Owakudani section from 12 January to 26 February 2027, with replacement buses.

Autumn colours the view from the open-air baths. The Japan Meteorological Agency's reference maples turn red on average on 22 November in Hiroshima and 24 November in Kanazawa; the dates shift every year, and our seasons guide gives the current year's.

Onsen tax and public bathhouses

The hot spring bathing tax, a municipal levy, is generally 150 ¥ (about 1 €) per person per day. It is included in the published rates of Hakone Ginyu and Iwasō, and paid on site at Gora Kadan. Some hotels give access to a nearby public bathhouse: the Ko-Sōyu for KAI Kaga guests, and the yubune bathhouse, with hot baths and a sauna, for guests of Azumi Setoda, in Setoda.

How many nights

One night is enough for a first bath and a kaiseki dinner, the seasonal meal of many small courses; two nights leave a full day on site, for the Hakone loop or the Kaga villages. Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka in 12 days spends two nights at Gora Kadan, as does the honeymoon in 11 days. Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go and Takayama in 10 days spends two nights at Wanosato, and Kyoto, Miyajima and the art islands in 10 days two nights at Iwasō. An evening at an inn, hour by hour, is on our Ryokans page.