Takinoyu Public Bath

photo by User: (WT-shared) Jpatokal at wts wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 3.0

Three hundred yen, water at pH 2.9 in cypress tubs: it is the bath of the town's shrine.

You go into a room lined with cypress and step down into two wooden tubs, where the water arrives hot and whitish and smells of sulphur. It is the town's public bath, not a hotel's; inside are the old people of Naruko, and the rule is the one it has always been: you wash outside the tub, and in the tub you just sit. It is three minutes' walk from the station.

Naruko is an onsen, that is, a spa town that grew up around hot springs: or rather five towns in a row in the north of the prefecture, with hundreds of springs and nine different types of water, and that is why Japanese people who collect baths come here specially. The Taki-no-yu is the historic public bath of the town of Naruko: the water is the 御神湯, the sacred water of the hot-spring shrine at the top of the flight of steps beside it, and it is acidic (pH 2.9), a sulphate and hydrogen sulphide water with alum, water for the skin and not for drinking, which the town has used for a thousand years. The tubs are made of boards of hiba cypress, the wood used in Japan to make baths because it stands up to boiling water.

ℹ️ Three hundred yen for adults, one hundred for children. Open from 7:30 to 21:00, last entry 20:30, every day of the year: the tourist association states that it has no weekly closing day. Soap and towel are not included: you can buy them at the entrance or bring your own. There is no car park: you use the paid one in front of Naruko Onsen Station, or the free one for the bath-hopping circuit. With water at pH 2.9 silver items turn black, so it is best to take them off before going in. There are other public baths in the same town at different prices: the Waseda Sajikiyu costs 660 yen and is open from 9:00 to 21:30.

🚉 Naruko-Onsen · 4 min walk

Sources: naruko.gr.jp · 4travel.jp · newt.net

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