Kusatsu Onsen Yubatake

photo by Aspere · CC0

photo by SpringField1967 · CC BY-SA 3.0

94.5°C at the Bandai spring: an iron nail left in the water dissolves in ten days.

In the central square the Bandai spring comes out of the ground at 94.5°C and is cooled with plate heat exchangers before it supplies the hotels: this is the display of steam that gives the Yubatake its name, ‘the field of hot water’. The water is strongly acidic, with a pH close to 2: an iron nail left in it dissolves in about ten days. The town manages six different springs (Bandai, Yubatake, Shirahata, Jizō, Nishinokawara and Niekawa), and around the square there are still nineteen communal public baths, some of them free.

Kusatsu, one of the most famous hot spring towns in Japan, grew up around acidic springs that rise naturally in the heart of the town. The municipality manages six springs (Bandai, Yubatake, Shirahata, Jizō, Nishinokawara and Niekawa), and the hottest, Bandai, comes out at 94.5°C: before reaching the hotels it passes through plate heat exchangers that bring it down to about 60°C. The pH is close to 2, among the most acidic in Japan: you only need to leave an iron nail in the water to see it dissolve in about ten days. Around the Yubatake square there are still nineteen communal public baths run by the neighbourhoods, some with free entry, where residents still bathe today.

ℹ️ The square is always accessible and free. The nineteen communal public baths are mostly reserved for people who live in the neighbourhoods they serve, or require a card; some are open to everyone free of charge – check the signs on site, because the town's official source does not publish a list of them with opening hours. No closing time is given for the square.

🚉 草津温泉バスターミナル · 4 min walk

Sources: town.kusatsu.gunma.jp

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