Onsen in Kansai, Japan — 92 Hot Springs

Mie · 17

Ise Shima Kamishiro Onsen
Nansei Sakurayama Onsen The Mie Peninsula holds its pleasures quietly.
Kii Nagashima Furusato Onsen There is a kind of bath that does not announce itself.
Tado Onsen The water here did not exist, in any practical sense, until 2004.
Oyamada Onsen
Oku-Shima Onsen
Oku Kahada-kyo Onsen The bus from Matsusaka takes an hour and a half, winding up into the mountains of Mie Prefecture as the valley deepens a
Arajima Onsen
Arikuji Onsen
Kisosaki Onsen There is a particular kind of place that exists in memory more than on any map — a place that once drew ordinary people
Motoura Onsen The bay at Motoura sits quietly along the Ikura coast, just beyond Toba, where the water is shallow enough for oyster fa
Kuwana Onsen
Sakakibara Onsen The water here is alkaline and simple — which is to say, it does its work without announcing itself.
Hamajima Onsen The waters here are relatively young, as hot springs go.
Yunoyama Onsen The waters here are alkaline radium springs, a phrase that sounds almost clinical until you lower yourself into them alo
Toba Kohama Onsen The Shima Peninsula is known for its coastline, its pearls, its particular quality of light over the sea.
Toba Onsen

Takarabune Onsen There is just the one inn here.
Onoe Onsen Along the northern shore of Lake Biwa, where the water stretches wide enough to suggest an inland sea, there is a small
Hira Shofuku Onsen There is something unusual about a hot spring that did not exist twenty years ago.
Ogoto Onsen
Biwako Onsen There is something worth sitting with in the fact that a hot spring can simply cease to exist.
Makino Shiratani Onsen The lake comes first — or rather, the sense of it.
Nagahama Taiko Onsen Nagahama sits quietly along the eastern shore of Lake Biwa, a castle town that carries its history without insisting upo
Ogoto Onsen (Otsu City)
Sugaya Onsen At the southern foot of Mount Kogaya, in the lake-country of northern Shiga, there is a single inn.

Kumi no Hama Onsen The Kyoto that most visitors know is a city of temples and crowds, of polished stone and careful ritual.
Kumihama Seaside Onsen Kumihama Bay sits quietly along the northern edge of Kyoto Prefecture, far from the city that shares its name.
Kyoto Takenosatoson Onsen There is a particular kind of surprise in finding thermal water rising in the middle of a residential district.
Yuhigaura Onsen The water here is young, as onsen histories go.
Ohara Onsen The bus from Kyoto takes nearly an hour, winding north through the city's edge and into a quieter register of hills and
Amanohashidate Onsen The waters here are young.
Oku-Ine Onsen The road from Amanohashidate takes the better part of an hour, winding along the coast until the Sea of Japan opens wide
Ukawa Onsen
Kizu Onsen They say a white heron led the monk Gyōki to these waters in the Nara period, and whether or not one believes the story,
Rurikei Onsen The mountains of Tanba rise quietly between Osaka and Kyoto, and somewhere in that fold of forest and valley, Rurikei si
Ayabe Onsen Ayabe sits in the southern reaches of Kyoto Prefecture, inland from the coast, far enough from the old capital that few

Fushio Onsen Thirty minutes from the center of Osaka, the city gradually releases its hold.
Amami Onsen
Okumizuma Onsen
Yamanakadani Onsen There is a station called Yamanakadani on the JR Hanwa Line, a few stops before the border with Wakayama Prefecture.
Settsukyō Onsen Osaka does not readily suggest gorges or silence.
Inunakiyama Onsen There is a particular quality of quiet that belongs to places long used for purposes other than leisure.

Ichinomiya Onsen (Shiso)
Nanakama Onsen The water here was found in 1955, and the discovery was not incidental.
Satsu Onsen The waters at Satsu are saline — chloride springs that settle into the body with a particular weight, the kind associate
Amaru Onsen
Rokko Nunobiki Onsen (Kobe)
Kakogawa Onsen (Kakogawa)
Hachikita Onsen (Kami-cho)
Yoshikawa Onsen (Miki)
Kinosaki Onsen The waters here have been known since before the Heian period — a lineage stretching back to at least 629 by one foundin
Shiota Onsen (Himeji)
Taisanji Onsen (Kobe)
Takarazuka Onsen (Takarazuka)
Ojiro (Ojiro Onsen) (Kami-cho)
Arima Onsen What strikes you first is not the history — though it runs deeper here than almost anywhere in Japan — but the color.
Muraoka Onsen (Kami-cho)
Shibayama Onsen The San'in Main Line deposits you at Shibayama Station, and within a single minute of walking you are already inside the
Hamasaka Onsen The train from the south takes its time reaching Hamasaka.
Yofudo Onsen (Asago)
Silk Onsen (Toyooka)
Konda Yakushi Onsen (Tanba-Sasayama)
Ako Onsen
Kasumi Onsen Kasumi sits just inland from its own coastline, close enough to the sea that the smell of salt and diesel finds its way

Kamikitayama Onsen The Kitayama River moves through this part of Nara Prefecture with a quiet insistence, carving its way through the deep
Kamiyu Onsen Deep in Totsukawa village, where the road narrows and the river takes over as the dominant fact of the landscape, Kamiyu
Shigisan Onsen The mountain called Shigisan sits in the western ranges of Nara Prefecture, close enough to the ancient corridors of Hor
Shionoha Onsen
Totsukawa Onsen
Yoshino Onsen The train from Kintetsu's Yoshino line deposits you at the foot of a mountain that has absorbed centuries of human atten
Tenokawa Onsen
Okukōraku Onsen There is a particular kind of silence that gathers around a place that once drew people in and no longer does.
Dorogawa Onsen To reach Dorogawa, you ride a bus for about an hour from Shimoichi-guchi Station, climbing steadily into the mountains o
Takasumi Onsen
Yahata Onsen

Kamiono Onsen The bus from Kii-Tanabe follows the road inland, leaving the coast behind as the Kii Peninsula folds into itself.
Futagawa Onsen The road that follows the Aridagawa river into the hills of Wakayama Prefecture grows quieter the further you go from th
Kada Awashima Onsen The Kinoo Strait runs narrow here, between the Kii Peninsula and Awaji Island, and the waters of Kada Awashima sit at it
Nanki Katsuura Onsen The approach is longer than you might expect.
Natsuyama Natusa Onsen
Oku-Kumano Onsen The road into Nakahechi takes you deeper into the Kumano mountains than you expect.
Tsukinose Onsen The Kii Peninsula does not give itself up easily.
Wataze Onsen The valley of the Shimura River is wide and unhurried, and Wataze sits within it with the quiet assurance of a place tha
Yunomine Onsen The valley is narrow, and so is the road into it.
Yugawa Onsen The waters here are sulfurous and simple — tanjun iōsen, the plainest designation in Japanese balneology, which is perha
Yunohana Onsen There is a particular kind of silence that belongs only to places that once held warmth and no longer do.
Kumano Hongu Onsen
Shirahama Onsen
Jinzu Onsen In Kinokawa, a city whose name simply means "river of Kii," there is a small onsen that draws visitors not for scenery o
Kishu Kuroshio Onsen The Kii Peninsula tapers southward into the Pacific, and near its northern edge, where the coast flattens and the city o
Ryujin Onsen The road into Ryujin takes its time.