Ujina Onsen Hono-yu

A real onsen inside Hiroshima city — brown free-flowing water fizzing with carbonation, beside the port

Honoyu Ujina, in Hiroshima’s Minami ward near Hiroshima Port (Ujina), is a large day-spa and one of the few places inside a city short on hot springs where you can bathe in a genuine onsen. Its pride is the free-flowing open-air rock bath: the carbon-dioxide-bearing sodium chloride water from below is brownish, smells of iron, tastes salty, and if you sit still tiny bubbles form on your skin. Salt and carbonation together warm you deeply and keep you warm afterwards. There are also pot tubs, an artificial carbonated bath, jets, a lie-down bath and more — ten-plus tubs — plus hot and mild saunas, a cold plunge and a separately charged bedrock-bath suite, so it works well as a super-sento too. The pricing is unusual: full access including rotenburo and saunas is ¥1,000 for adults on weekdays, but a “bath only” ticket for the indoor baths is about ¥500, distinguished by locker-key colour — choose at reception. It is 20 minutes by bus from Hiroshima Station, 10 minutes on foot from the end of the Hiroden Ujina tram line, and 5 minutes by car from Hiroshima Port, where the Miyajima and Matsuyama ferries depart — convenient for an evening after the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Park, or before or after a ferry to Shikoku. Open 9:00–23:00, with four to six irregular closures a year (open over holidays and New Year). It is popular enough that re-entry is sometimes suspended on packed midsummer Sundays, so weekdays and mornings are more comfortable. Ask anyone staying in Hiroshima for “an onsen that feels like an onsen” and this is the first name you will hear.

Tips & cautions

- 9:00–23:00 (last entry 22:00); four to six irregular closures a year — check the official site.

- Choose “bath only” (indoor, about ¥500) or “full access” (rotenburo and saunas, ¥1,000) — the free-flowing rotenburo needs the full ticket.

- +¥100 at weekends and holidays. Re-entry is suspended when full — avoid peak times.

- Towels not included — bring or rent.

- Brown iron-rich water tints white towels and tarnishes silver.

- Tattoos: generally banned at super-sento — check officially.

- Using it around a Hiroshima Port ferry (Matsuyama Super Jet about 1 h 10 min)? Leave big luggage in port lockers.

- Take the Hiroden tram bound for “Hiroshima-ko” (Ujina) and alight one or two stops before the terminus.

Getting there

~20 min on Hiroshima Bus No. 31 (toward the prefectural hospital / Prefectural University) from Hiroshima Station south exit to the terminus, then 5 min on foot (Ujina-higashi 3-4-34, Minami-ku, Hiroshima). ~10 min on foot from Hiroden tram stops Kenbyoin-mae or Ujina-nichome. By car ~3 min from Ujina IC (Hiroshima Expressway 3), 5 min from Hiroshima Port. Free parking, 159 cars. Tel. 082-252-1126.