Misasa Onsen

After visiting Tottori’s sand dunes, we visited the Misasa Onsen town, home to apparently the “most radium-enriched hot springs” in the world. The town has a couple of hotels in the area, so their guests can enjoy the onsen baths located inside the hotel. For day-trip users, there are two public options in the area.

The first is the Kabuyu (株湯) public bath, which to enter was a mere 400 yen. For that price, you get very much a no-frills onsen - you have the showers to wash off at, and the tub to get in, and that’s it. No hair dryers, body soap or shampoo (it’s all bring your own, or go without). It was also extremely hot - like 45°C. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to hot onsens, so I chose to just sit with half my body in the water. It’s so hot it really tingles.

Outside the onsen is a small statue of a man and wolf. The story goes, 850 years ago, a samurai spared this white wolf’s life, and in reward the location of these hot springs were revealed.

From here, we chose to take a walk towards the local river. When I think of rural towns and little onsens, I usually expect the surrounding area to be pretty quiet. So i was surprised to see a fair few people walking along the street. I think with the handful of onsen hotels available in the area, everyone’s out on their evening walk, and that keeps the area feeling a tiny bit lively. I think also considering we visited on the 29th of December, it must be a pretty popular destination for those looking for a relaxing way to end the year.

Once we reached the river, there you can see the second option for taking a public bath, which is down by the river. This one is free.

… but it’s also quite literally public. From the photo it might look covered, but the wooden fencing is done in an “L” shape, so all you have to do is walk 10m to the right and you can see naked people. But they were really just standing there, stark-naked by the edge of the pool, with not a care in the world.

I have seen public onsens like this in the past, but they generally at least have full 360 coverage of the entrance/undressing area - so seeing a setup like this was a first for me!

Also of note in the area was a random bust of Marie Curie (which I didn’t take a photo of). She’s never visited here, but as the discoverer of radium (and these hot springs being enriched by radium) she’s celebrated here with an annual festival held in her honour. There is also the nearby Mt Mitoku, which I’ll have to come back and climb the next time I’m in Tottori.